


A Tale of a Universe Lit Anew

by DarkOwlFeather



Series: Retelling Corona's Tales [3]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: A Bit of Fluff, A dive into the Lore, AU where Cass lived her childhood with Gothel, AU where the team to the Dark Kingdom is very different, Action, Adventure, F/F, F/M, From Corona to the Dark Kingdom, Gen, Magic is different than in canon, Mystery, Taking some liberties for the personalities, They’re consistent with the previous part of the story, Unlikely alliances, We'll follow several teams, a bit of angst, a wild oc appears
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 19:07:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 64,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28979352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkOwlFeather/pseuds/DarkOwlFeather
Summary: Direct sequel to "Retelling Corona's Tales: A Tale of Eclipsed Moon and Eclipsed Sun" (we begin a couple of hours where we left this last part).After spending their childhoods away from the world, Rapunzel and Cassandra are now free from Gothel. A new path is laid before them, with many peripeties for them, and the people they meet...A long journey on the roads for some, unlikely alliances for others, History and lore coming into the mix, and discoveries on ancient knowledges that now seem wrong...Updates on Monday and Friday on the afternoon, UTC+1 (Paris)
Relationships: Cassandra/Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled), Queen Arianna of Corona/King Frederic of Corona (Disney)
Series: Retelling Corona's Tales [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1997140
Comments: 32
Kudos: 39





	1. Lighting the way for the journey to come

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is the bridge between the end of the second part and this third part of the story.  
> It’s kinda part epilogue, part prologue.  
> I asked myself if I should put it as epilogue or as prologue, and finally settled on the latter option. The action starts barely hours after where we left the end of the second part.  
>   
> As said in this previous chapter, the main reason I chose to cut the story in two parts here is because we’re going on a big new adventure with a lot of incoming characters, story-lines, we've got a lot of new tags…
> 
> So…
> 
> Onward and have a nice reading!

When they arrived in Corona, the first place Arianna led Cassandra and Rapunzel to was Xavier’s house. As they were walking in the streets, as incognito as they could with cloaks and hoods while the captain was getting the horses back to the stables, she had explained why there.

Both the queen and the mother in Arianna wanted Rapunzel to come to the castle, to discover her real family, to finally come home. But she feared also that her little trip and the discovery they made might not be well received by king Frederic.

Sure, he was most of the time a man of great understanding, ready to listen and accept as to improve the discussions between himself, his kingdom and the people on the other side. But now, it wasn’t about diplomacy, it wasn’t about another kingdom, or anything of the like. It was family, close people. And Arianna remembered how he had reacted when Xavier had recovered his memories and came to them, just the day before.

Frederic would think to protect, to assure the security of those he cherished most, of those he could never bear to lose ever again. And by doing so, Arianna feared he might do something he would later regret. So, she chose to let the two young women stay at Xavier’s house for the time being. That way, they would be able to see the city, to discover it and learn with Xavier of the many things of the world, all the while being close to the castle and their real family.

And when the time would come, Arianna would have figured a way to introduce them both in the castle. Though, she still didn’t know how that plan itself would be received and accepted, or rejected. Only time would tell.

So, later in the morning, she went back to the castle, pretending she was taking a horse ride in the forest as only official explanation. Her husband was worried that she had left without a word after the heated discussion in the throne room, but he couldn’t stay mad forever. His only family was back with him now.

Still, he found his beloved more distant that day. He only assumed the discussion had reopened a gap he had thought closed long ago when their daughter had be captured to never be found yet. Had he say something he shouldn’t have?

Since Xavier and Arianna had left the throne room, the conversation had played again and again in his mind, but he couldn’t find himself wrong. No, it had been wrong from Xavier to hide such knowledge. And curse these memory spells. Fitting excuses to a magic user, but to a king, that wasn’t enough. If the old blacksmith hadn’t been a long-time friend to his family, and hadn’t proved many times his loyalty to the kingdom, Frederic would have had no choice but to consider him a traitor to the crown.

Still, he found a way to express his frustration elsewhere than rummaging endlessly through his mind. When Arianna came back that day, he had been at the hen-house of the castle, taking care of the chickens and their eggs as he did since he was a kid. That was a hobby that had never left him. Most of the time now, he could only go there when he was stressed. He couldn’t afford much distraction.

The preparations for the evening were mostly completed. When the sun would fall behind the horizon, the lanterns would rise into the sky, like every year for now eighteen long years.

In town, Xavier had invited Rapunzel and Cassandra to take place on his balcony, from which they could see the bay, the castle, and part of the main street, snake of cobblestones running up and down the hill of Corona. It was one of the most perfect places to watch the show. He gave them a lantern each, the firsts of many he hoped.

“I know you’ve been here for only a couple of hours,” started Xavier, while offering them a cup of hot tea as cold came slowly, “but, how do you like it here so far?”

“Not as worse as I imagined,” admitted Cassandra, taking a sip of the tea.

“Is that so?” asked the blacksmith, genuinely intrigued by this comment.

“Well, the captain kept saying that the city was all about robberies, crimes, kidnappings and rapes. That I was lucky to live away in the forest, even with Mother who is, well, wasn’t exactly the best example of love a kid could ask for.”

“I see. But you know, the captains lives days and nights with crimes around him. The prison cells aren’t far from his office in the castle. He hears the criminals every day. Of course he would be biased. But let me assure you, when you’re not in the guard, you know the world is so much more than just that.”

“When are the lanterns going to fly?” asked Rapunzel, already leaning on the railing with her own lantern in hands.

“It shouldn’t be long now. We just have to wait till the king and queen release theirs, and then, those in town will follow,” explained Xavier, walking toward her, his own lantern with him. “Cassandra, you want to join us?”

Instead of answering, she came to the railing, and watched the streets down below. Waves of people were coming from afar, some even from the villages near the Corona wall to see the lanterns and release them as well.

As night fell even more, darkness covering the city, and a single light appeared on the balcony of the palace. Holding it were the king and queen, smiling to the crowd below, on the marches, in the courtyard, and in all Corona.

“There, take this,” said Xavier, handing Rapunzel a spyglass. “Put your eye against this lens, and point it toward what you want to watch. Just turn the rings to adjust the precision if it’s too blurry. You get it?”

“Yes, and whoa, it’s amazing! Cass! I can see the queen’s face like she’s standing in front of me! And, oh, so… he’s my dad… You want to take a look?”

“I’ll go get you another spyglass,” said Xavier, before Cassandra could even accept or refuse the offer.

He left the balcony with a knowing smile, and left them both enjoy the show that would be happening soon. When they were finally alone, Cassandra let her worry face go, and let herself enjoy the moment. Everyone was so nice to them. Why would she need to worry even when they were there? They wanted to help them. She trusted the captain, and the captain trusted Xavier and the queen. Why couldn’t Cassandra then?

At least, now, with lanterns in the streets, the peaceful city below, Rapunzel by her side, and no one who seemed to have any interest in harming them, she allowed herself to relax a bit. And while she was breathing deeply, letting the stress go, she realized how much she had been tense, for too long. And this stress she had only went away faster when Rapunzel leaned her head against her shoulder, while still watching at the city around them through the spyglass.

“It’s now! It’s now! They’re releasing the lantern!” shouted Rapunzel, stamping with impatience.

“I see it!” realized Cassandra, who was swinging by her friend’s sudden movement.

The king and queen were holding their lantern together, above their head. And now with only the wind to lead it, the paper light rose into the night, silent bird taking its flight in the dark, till wind makes it fall on a faraway land.

The lanterns in town followed as one, one big cloud of fires rising, warming the city as they ascended to the sky. Cassandra let hers go, and so did Rapunzel, and both their lights joined the flock that was leaving, so soon.

“Oh, shoot, I missed them,” said Xavier, as he arrived on the balcony with a second spyglass in his hands. “Was it great?”

“Beautiful,” said Cassandra with a warmer smile than before.

“Magnificent,” confirmed Rapunzel, radiant as ever.

“Well well, when they’ll be far enough, why don’t you come downstairs? I prepared a short meal. There’s meat and vegetables. Though I don’t know if you have any allergy or else.”

“Allergy? What is it?” asked Rapunzel.

“For food, it’s when an aliment normally edible can make you sick, even kill you, depending of the dose. But, if you didn’t know that, I guess there shouldn’t be any problem. Or else you’d know. If anything, the few I know of magic can surely suffice to help. Well, I’ll let you enjoy the show. After all you’ve been through, you deserve some time alone. I’ll see you downstairs.”

He nodded, and soon retreated inside the house, leaving once more on the balcony. In the streets below, the townsfolk were starting to play music, to dance as the streetlights were fired again. The music was entertaining, though the sound arrived at the balcony was a bit disrupted by the distance. As the lanterns flew away, the stars in the sky started to shine brighter than earlier in the evening. Songs were flying up in town, as did cheers and clapping.

At both the sounds and sights, Rapunzel parted from her position against Cassandra to watch below, and sighed.

“I want to go there, to be with them. They look all so happy.”

“But we can’t. Raps, let us take things slowly. You heard the queen, err, your mother. We can’t just go there and do as if nothing ever happened. We have to know this life better first. So we don’t take any fool step. We don’t know what could happen.”

“Even if only for a few minutes?” pleaded Rapunzel.

“I’d like to go down there too, you know?” admitted Cassandra, leaning her back on the railing. “Why don’t we dance here?”

“Dance? But I don’t know how…”

“Neither do I.”

Cassandra proposed her her hand to take, looking both unsure what step to take and ready to lead a dance she wouldn’t even know. If anything, it would be their dance. And no one could take that from them.

They didn’t know how to do it, where to put their hands. Shoulder? Arm? Waist? It was awkward, to say the least, and it made them both smile, and giggle and blush. After few tries, they settled on putting one hand on the other’s shoulder, the other hand on her side and back.

And like the people down below, they walked small steps, little jumps of sort, walking forward a bit, then backward, trying not to hit the railing of the balcony nor the walls of the house. There were mistakes, foot stamping the other’s foot, but it didn’t matter at all. Swirling into the night, they felt even more free than they had been in the forest, earlier that day. And warm smiles lighted their faces, eyes looking deeply into each other’s pupils.

Several times, the one looking in the direction of the door to the house could see Xavier watching them silently, with a face of wisdom that assured them their dance for the rightest thing in the world that could happen that evening. And they answered him both with a thankful smile, resuming the dance without further silent discussion, evading in their dream of being with the one from the past that would lead them to the future.

On the royal balcony in the castle, queen Arianna wasn’t looking at the whole city. Something was different tonight. Her eyes were looking at Xavier’s house, and his balcony that was only partially visible from where she was. And though she couldn’t see everything through the distance, she saw two persons dancing, and she knew who, and it made her smile.

Her husband by her side noticed this smile, and followed her glance, till Xavier’s balcony.

“I didn’t know Xavier had guests tonight,” he said, trying to start the conversation.

“Yes. He told me he met them during one if his previous journeys and that they’ll be in town for few days. Do you care?” she asked, a touch of hope in her voice.

“Well, I’ve been thinking. And I’ve been unjust to Xavier. He didn’t deserve the hatred I flooded him with the other day. I want to apologize. To invite him to dinner maybe. I have to make up for my mistakes. And the sooner the better. But, this matter is still private, so, better if the story doesn’t spill. And… if he has guests, better if we leave them out of all that.”

“I see. It’s never too late to apologize, Fred. Just… Prepare your words carefully. I’ll go get some sleep. This last day was tiring, to say the least.”

“I’ll see you there, darling,” assured Frederic, leaving a gentle kiss on her hands, cold by the time out in the night.

She went inside, readying herself for a good night sleep. Surely, this night would be the best in years. Though she had her reasons to not tell her husband, she had found her daughter, who had grown up to be a beautiful and healthy young woman. Yes, she had heard of the suffering she must have been through because of Gothel. Still, with the captain’s visits at the cottage, Gothel’s daughter Cassandra seemed to have helped Rapunzel appreciate the world, and the transition between the confinement up there in this tower and the life of the princess she was born to be would only be easier.

If only she knew she could trust Frederic to not try to hold Rapunzel in the city, to protect her for sure, but constricting her in a prison just wider than a tower. As always, he would think he would be doing the right thing. But how to make him see that this wasn’t the way? How could the grieving parent he was possibly let his long-lost child, who now was a grown-up young woman, wander around, and be assured she was safe? Arianna couldn’t answer those, for she had asked herself the same questions for eighteen years and that they came back stronger, now that she had found her daughter.

And now, she didn’t know if she would really do what she thought she’d do next. She had thought that the girls deserved some time together, to acclimate to this life neither knew. But then, there had been what Gothel had said in the tower, before her last breath. The Sundrop, the Moonstone.

Arianna knew the Sundrop, it was the myth that had saved her and her daughter all those years ago. But what was it about truly? Was this Moonstone supposed to be found? By who? She knew she’d go to Xavier on the morning, to check on the girls after their first night in town. And she would ask him, who knew magic, who now remembered knowing Gothel, what the Sundrop and Moonstone were about, and what to do about them. Should they be left alone? Sought and found? To what end? She hoped Xavier would have the answers. But not tonight.

On the morning, Arianna was up before Frederic, and after preparing herself, getting dressed, she went to take her breakfast in the castle’s garden gazebo. Her husband arrived when she had nearly finished, and as she went away wishing him a good day, he returned the wish, though noticing she was still different, like during the evening. He sighed, and went back to his eggs, knowing he would only be able to talk to her way later that day, after the many reunions set for months that were waiting for him today.

Arianna left the castle to go in town, security protocol obliges, with a soldier. She had asked the captain, as she knew he would want to come. They were going to Xavier’s house. And of course, the captain accepted. After the discussion in the forest, there were still a lot of things he wanted to ask Cassandra, be assured she was well, that she didn’t need any help or else he would gladly offer his.

When they arrived at the forge, Xavier wasn’t there, so they went directly to his house, which was literally the next door. They knocked, and were a bit surprised when Rapunzel went to open, though their surprised face left as soon as she invited them for breakfast with a wide grin. Both Rapunzel and Cassandra were up since barely half an hour.

“Ah, there you are,” said Xavier when he saw them enter. “Come, Cass is in the kitchen. Do you want to take a little something? I made cookies. A bit crunchier than Monty’s, but he’s not open today,” he laughed lightly, as he often did when comparing his kitchen skills with the baker’s.

“Thanks Xavier,” said Arianna, “I already took my breakfast. I’ll take a cookie though. How are your guests today?”

“Amazing!” shouted Rapunzel, coming from behind her. “This town is awesome! I want to know all about it! Will you teach me all about it? Please?”

“One step at a time, please, dear,” said Arianna. “You will know all you want to know about Corona. In time. I have questions first. If you don’t mind.”

“Well, I guess that’s okay. I can wait. I waited eighteen years after all,” sighed the young woman with a pout.

“Rapunzel… that’s not what I meant. It’s just that things are already moving faster than I expected and… there’s this connection to magic I want to understand before doing anything we might regret. I am open minded, but your father, well, he doesn’t see magic as well as I do. I haven’t told him about you yet. I want to do it right. But before, I need to know you more, and you need to know me and the life here more.”

“Right… How long do you think it will take?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I’m here. When… Shortly before Gothel died, she said something about the Moonstone. Xavier, you knew her. Do you know what she was talking about? And tell us the truth, not the legend.”

“The Moonstone is a myth, said to be the opposite of the Sundrop. But right now, it’s more like a theory. Eons ago, when the Sundrop fell onto the Earth, there was something else. Demanitus thought it was the Moonstone. All lead to say it was. But as far as I remember, it was never found.”

“Are you sure?” checked Arianna. “Or could this be Gothel’s memory spell talking? Frederic told me of a meeting he had with you and a man called Quirin the night Rapunzel was born. Could you have talked of the Moonstone?”

“Frankly, your Majesty, I don’t remember. Part of my memory may still be missing. But this meeting? I can’t say I remember any meeting. Though, well, now that you mention it… No, it was fleeting, but, no I can’t remember any meeting that night. Or maybe… If there was one, it’ll come back sooner or later. The main thing is, right now, we have no way to know the Moonstone is real.”

“Mother told me about the Moonstone,” said Cassandra, taking a pause in her breakfast. “She started saying it was a myth, like you said, but soon, she was telling me I was preparing to find it, to reunite it with the Sundrop. To become powerful. That it was my destiny, or something. Until I met Rapunzel, I didn’t understand why she kept telling me about the Moonstone, and never the Sundrop. I think she never wanted me to find the Sundrop. That she already had it, so there was no need to search for it. But, the Sundrop is inside Rapunzel, and what Mother did was wrong.”

“Yes, it was,” assured Xavier. “But the fact that she told you to prepare for the Moonstone seems a bit strange to me. Right before, well, leaving us, she said that finding the Moonstone would be a way to take revenge over Zhan Tiri and her minions.”

“Zhan who now?” asked Cassandra.

“Zhan Tiri,” repeated Xavier. “She was an ancient demon, sorceress, from another realm. And by realm, I mean reality. She was the one who cast the blizzard during Herz Der Sonne reign, long ago. Demanitus built a device, a portal, that banished her from our realm. This prison of sort is still closed, there’s no way from her side she could go out.”

“So why would my mother want so badly to take revenge on someone who’s basically dead?”

“That, my dear, I fear I can’t tell. Gothel was always different in a way. She did things I didn’t understand. This quest for the Moonstone is a brave one, if the Moonstone does exist.”

“Why don’t we search for it then?” asked Arianna.

Her question met a deafening silence. She took a chair to sit down, following the glances of her friends who frankly, thought the answer was a simple one.

“We can’t, your Majesty. If the Moonstone is real, and we don’t even know it is, then what luck do we possibly have to find it?” asked Xavier.

“I’m with him, your Majesty,” said the captain. “We can’t just leave for a fairy-tale. Assuming that there’s something at the end of this journey, how long would it even be?”

“No one had found it in centuries,” added Xavier. “It could take weeks, but more likely years, generations even, for all we know.”

“And what do the researches Demanitus did say about it?” insisted Arianna.

“That it’s a myth. That if it’s real, its power is certainly the opposite of the Sundrop’s. But, assuming that the Moonstone is real, we don’t even know it’s a stone. I mean, what we call Sundrop appeared as a flower and not a drop. And now, its power is in a person. It was only briefly a drop. For all we know, the Moonstone could be a tree. Or like Rapunzel, could be in a person, or even an animal. With all due respect, there’s so much we don’t know, it would be foolish to go on this quest.”

“But what if we did try to find it?” she insisted.

“Err… If I may,” started Rapunzel with a small voice. “The day before you found us, we were near the ledge where the Sundrop Flower was. And there was this big explosion when my hair touched the rocks around. And those black rocks around the cliff started to move, and they all pointed a way. Could they lead to the Moonstone?”

“Black rocks, you say?” checked Xavier, bringing a hand to his bearded chin in a thoughtful motion.

“Yeah, black rocks, smooth as if polished, but unbreakable,” described Cassandra. “You didn’t see them?”

“There had been reports,” said the captain, “but we never assumed it could be related to magic. Supposed it was some kind of erosion. We never investigated further. The king had asked us not to. And even if we did connect them to magic, we would never have thought it was this Moonstone.”

“But it can be,” admitted Xavier. “This changes everything. We could send explorers check this path of black rocks. But frankly, we still don’t know if it’s really the Moonstone.”

“Don’t be such a kill-joy, Xavier,” said Arianna. “This may be the best lead we have so far. You will go. You know magic best. And if they’re okay with that, I’d like my daughter and her friend to accompany you.”

“Your Majesty, you can’t be serious!” exclaimed the captain. “Your daughter has just been found, after all those years! You can’t just send her away like this!”

“Captain. Please. Rapunzel holds the Sundrop, or so, that’s what I understood. Cassandra has been told she had to find this Moonstone. And Xavier knows magic better than any of us in this room. And you have your place in the guard. I want to go with them, or at least you to go with them, but we have to stay here in Corona. And unless you know someone who could take your place, and a reason for your departure, or mine, that my husband won’t suspect, then we both have to stay.”

“I… Right, you’re right, your Majesty.”

Admitting his defeat in this argument he couldn’t win against a royal, the captain went to sit on a nearby chair, with a loud sigh he hoped would still show his disagreement. They all stayed like that a while, no one really wanting to reopen the discussion. Xavier offered another round of cookies, which all accepted silently, but none dared speak again of the Moonstone.

A bell chimed outside the house. Xavier looked through the window and sighed.

“It’s one of the neighbor’s kids. Guess his toy is broken again. I shouldn’t be long.”

He opened the door and left, making sure no one from outside could peek into the house, which resulted in a suspect movement to close the leaf. They heard him talk to the kid and level a metallic object in front of his eyes, toy that looked like a simple game of cogs and gears. Xavier nodded, and went in direction of the forge. Some teeth were twisted after a bad fall on the cobblestones of the street. Not a big reparation, it would be done soon.

Inside the house, the guests watched him work. They didn’t want to talk again of the previous discussion. Arianna had made her decision, she expected the others, mostly the captain, to understand her choice. If, for any reason, he disagreed, she didn’t want him to go to king Frederic. That could ruin this barely thought about plan. And the kingdom too, would the king order a search party to follow the black rocks.

When the room started to feel too oppressive, Rapunzel left without a word, only whispering something in Cassandra’s ear that the other woman seemed to understand perfectly. The second one to leave was the captain, who after checking the time, realized he had to go back in the training grounds for the day’s training session. He left politely, nodding to the queen, Cassandra and Xavier when he was outside.

“Well… It’s only the two of us now,” noticed Arianna when he was gone.

“Yeah…”

“Cassandra, if I may, would you go on this journey I suggested? You said your mother prepared you for this… But, after all she has done to you, and to my daughter, I don’t want to be like I’m taking her place, and forcing you to do anything you don’t want to do.”

“No, it’s okay,” assured Cassandra, unconvinced by her own voice.

“I don’t know what to expect of this journey, truly,” admitted Arianna. “But I do know that you’ve been held away for too long. And I trust Xavier to help you, so you and Rapunzel can be ready, one day, to come back, at your own pace.”

“And if this journey tells us we don’t want to come back here, in Corona?”

Arianna stayed silent, her head low. The idea of the journey had come so fast, so unprepared, she hadn’t yet thought of that possibility.

“We’ll come back,” assured Cassandra, seeing her face.

“Thank you. You… you’ve lost your mother, but you know, here you can have people who love you.”

“I already have Rapunzel.”

“I noticed. Hum… I know it’s impolite to spy, though yesterday, I saw you dance from my balcony. You were far away. But I knew you were happy. I don’t want to take that away.”

Cassandra couldn’t hide her giggle.

“You really think that?” she asked the queen.

“Yes. I don’t know how much of the world and the ways of the cities the captain told you, but some people will look at you strangely. Not because you were kept alone in a cottage in the woods or a tower for years. But because you love each other.”

“They would?”

“Sadly, yes. But I won’t. After all you’ve been through, after all you’ve lived, even if I know far from everything you’ve lived, I know you are each other’s anchor in this world. And I will never take that away. You and Rapunzel know best how to care for each other. To take you away from each other would only destroy all you’ve started to build together. That’s also why I can’t propose to only one of you to go on this journey. If you want to.”

“I… Thank you, for understanding.”

“Always, Cassandra, always… Now, for this journey… I will see if I can let you have a carriage or a caravan. You have a horse. She’s beautiful by the way. Does she have a name?”

“Not yet. But we’ll find her one. She’ll stay with us. She’s faithful.”

“In my mother tongue, faithful is translated “fidèle”. Would Fidella be a good name for her?”

“Fidella? I’m sure she’ll like it,” assured Cassandra with a smile.

“You could ask Xavier to make her a name plate if you want.”

“We’ll see. I have to ask Rapunzel first.”

“Of course… Cassandra, do you want to know another reason I want you to go with Rapunzel and Xavier?”

“I’m sure you’ll tell me.”

“It’s because I know you fight well. The captain told me he trained you in secret. And though I don’t thoroughly approve this secret training, I trust that he trained you well. And that if anything happened, you’ll know how to defend yourself and your friends.”

“Thank you for you trust, but… It still feels a bit weird, if I may. I mean, Raps and I left the tower what? Few days ago, less than a week, that’s sure. And now, you appear, you’re kind, understanding. And now you get us on a quest to find what Mother wanted me to find my whole life. It’s a lot to take in.”

“I know. Take your time. You don’t have to leave soon. You and Rapunzel can stay as long as you need to. Weeks, months… As long as you need to… We have to find you a caravan anyway…”

Arianna seemed to wait for a reaction, an answer, but Cassandra was thoughtful, and stayed silent.

“Well, I’d better go see my daughter,” she said with a warm smile, before taking a short pause to look back at Cassandra. “You, know, it’s weird for me too. For years, I feared I’d only talk about my daughter when diplomats would bring their condolences, and I would never have known her. And now, I know her, I know she’s healthy, happy, and in good company. And the fear is gone. And that’s thanks to you, Cassandra. I… I’ll go see Rapunzel.”

She turned around, and left the room, going up the stairs where Rapunzel went not long before. And Cassandra was alone in the room, with only a cup of tea and the remaining cookies as only company. Even Rapunzel’s chameleon, Pascal, was upstairs in the room Xavier had given them. Owl, who had been mostly on his own since the encounter at the campsite, was with Fidella in Xavier’s garden, for lack of real stables at his house.

They would leave. One day, to go on a quest. But before, they needed a good rest. The queen was right. She couldn’t make them blend into this life they knew nothing of, neither could she make them go away on this quest without any time to prepare. And so, all that was to do at the moment was waiting. But it was a good wait. They knew something was coming. They weren’t waiting for nothing with empty dreams Mother kept filling them with. Now, they had a goal. And they would reach it.

~ ~ ~

Away, far away yet not that much, two people walked. There were far from being together. Miles separated them. And they weren’t going the same way. They had fell from the sky only a day ago, when the black rocks caused the explosion in Corona. They knew what this explosion meant. They had to find something. Something precious they were to find centuries ago already. Something they hadn’t found yet.

Both believed that by finding the artifact, the other would break on Earth an evil who was well imprisoned and who should most certainly stay that way. One of them knew that was the worst idea possible. The other, though, hadn’t change her mind. They had lived for millennia with the evil being. They had been used by her when she tried to escape from her prison. No more. She thought them faithful. She shouldn’t.

Yet, for as long as they believed the other one would be against them, a silent war was on. And who wage a war shall find allies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, while writing this chapter: I like this, we’re going for a big rewrite of the journey, it’ll be fun!  
> Re, rereading several weeks later: wait a minute, that doesn’t make any sense, why would Arianna send them away so soon? They'll stay a while, but well, be indulgent on this plot-convenient part of the chapter I guess? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	2. Onward we go

During the next days that became few weeks, life went back to a pretended normality. The captain went back to his work, not speaking of word of the less than three days he wasn’t at his post, only saying that it was an exercise for the troops, in case something real was to happen.

Xavier went to tend to his forge, only taking a lot more free time than usual. And queen Arianna, without another word to her husband, went back to her royal life she had, and all the courtesies that went with it. Though she would gladly admit she’d prefer to spend her time somewhere else than the castle.

On his free time, Xavier was working on a caravan. He had took the small cart Cassandra and Rapunzel had kept from Gothel’s cottage, and modified it a lot, with their help. It almost didn’t look like a cart anymore. It was longer, larger, higher. Every time they worked on it was a time to learn how to work the wood, the metal, how to combine them and create such things as a caravan. Thankfully, as the blacksmith he was, he had a lot of spare parts, mostly metallic, the work went fast. Finding wood wasn’t hard either. When they didn’t have enough in the stock, he took the ladies in the forest to cut some trees.

And there, they would take the day to get wood, and learn things about the life out there too. The wind, the flowers, the animals. Cassandra knew most of that. It was all new to Rapunzel. She filled a couple of sketchbooks, trying to keep a trace of these things she only discovered now. All that Cassandra had brought to the tower had been a first step. Now, she was seeing all by herself, feeling all. And there was no rush to leave and get away from Gothel anymore. They had time. All the time they needed.

Soon enough, a caravan was ready. It was made of two main parts, a front one, and a back one. All the walls were detachable, with hinges and hooks and walls and roofs to change them if ever needed to rearrange the place. Truly, this was an idea of Xavier, who had always wanted to try to create such an adaptable caravan.

Usually, the front part, still separated from the drivers’ seats by a wall, would be the sleeping place. A wall cut the piece in two, one third on a side, two on the other, with on one side Xavier’s bed and on the other Cassandra and Rapunzel’s. Each side had a door with an oculus, a roof window, and a trap door, more like another small window actually, leading to the driver’s seat.

The back room, that was opened on the rear of the caravan with a window of crown glass reinforced by metallic sash bars and wooden shutters, was like the living room. There was a table against the wall, a somewhat of kitchen with a little cooking pot, and their storage of food and various objects or weapons that only waited to be used, for training and real battles.

It took them more than two months and a half to build the thing. And at last, it was completed. Xavier made a few tryouts in the streets and country, while Arianna was at his house to help her daughter and her friend to prepare for their journey. Sometimes, they would all join join Xavier, and he would teach the girls how to ride, while Arianna was riding by the caravan’s side. It happened often that Xavier would stop the carriage in a clearing, free one of the two horses from its harness, even both of them, and Rapunzel and Cassandra would race in the woods with Arianna. Now living half her time with her daughter and her friend, the queen had on her face a smile she hadn’t had for years.

A smile of happiness, and yet, with a pinch of sadness. For she knew she couldn’t tell her husband, though it pained her immensely. Her daughter was free here, with Cassandra, under Xavier’s roof. Arianna knew Frederic would want them safe in the castle’s wall. Though, would he even care about them both or only about his own daughter? To that, Arianna couldn’t answer. But to Frederic, safety could often rime with lack of freedom. She didn’t want that for her daughter. Rapunzel deserved better than the room they had for her in the castle, high at the top of a tower, when she had lived all her life at the top of another tower.

And now, living in the streets of Corona with the blacksmith, Rapunzel and Cassandra had both learned a lot during their time in town. About the city, the kingdom, the kingdoms behind the borders, even general knowledge Gothel kept from them. Sciences, literature, arts, only now could they realize how much they had missed. And they realized too how much they had to learn, to understand, if only to be able to talk to someone else in the streets. Now, it was like they knew most of what was to be known of the place they were, and in few days, they would leave it behind them.

The search for the Moonstone hadn’t been much talked about in the two long months they spent in Corona. They knew they had to follow the black rocks. They didn’t know where exactly the rocks would take them. They would discover it in time.

And after some time, the day came.

As he always did when he was out of town for a long time, Xavier informed king Frederic of his departure, to entrust him once more with the keys of his house and all the precious things that was in it, as well as under it. And the final day, Frederic insisted he would greet his friend for a last goodbye before the road.

He had invited him, a couple of weeks ago, to a dinner. And the blacksmith came. Alone. And the king had said he was sorry for his behavior during the meeting they had before the celebration of the lanterns. Frederic had asked for his forgiveness, and Xavier had accepted his excuses. But to Frederic, they sounded empty. He knew their was so much to do for his old family friend, that he should do but couldn’t.

There were words, unsaid, untold, Frederic could sense it. But he said nothing. No need to rub salt on a wound he had opened. Xavier would open up when he would be ready. He wasn’t a diplomat who needed to answer right away. No need to pressure him after all he had done for the crown.

The day of the departure, Frederic visited the special caravan. Xavier only told him that he would be alone, the two women he had hosted during the lantern ceremony having already left about a week ago.

When they were both back in his house to help pack the last things, mostly food, Arianna ushered Rapunzel and Cassandra into the caravan and went with them, having pretending to her husband she felt tired and was going back to the castle earlier that day. As they were in the ladies’ room, the wall between their room and the living room wide open to gain space, they looked through the windows the king they hadn’t had yet the opportunity of meeting.

“So… He’s my father?” asked Rapunzel, uneasy about meeting the man she owed her life to for barely the first time, but through glass and meters of separation.

“Yes,” answered her mother, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“I… This isn’t right, I should say goodbye. And hello too…”

“Darling, I’m sure you want that more than anything, but… If he ever learns of your presence here and now, he’ll want to keep you safe, and to keep you here. You won’t have the freedom you’ve barely known.”

“I know,” she sighed, turning away from the window.

“How exactly are you so sure he would act that way?” asked Cassandra, laying lazily on her and Rapunzel’s bed.

“Well… I could find countless times like this…” Arianna said, reminiscing. “Let’s just say that, Frederic, well, he is soft, that’s true, he has a big heart. But this big heart comes with an iron fist. Girls… very few people know that but, on our honeymoon, in the mountains, one day while we were hiking, I took a bad step and fell. If it weren’t for Frederic, I’d certainly be down the valley. When we came back, this incident had him so fearful, he forbid me to even go horseback riding! Can you believe it?” asked Arianna, joking at these old memories. “It took him weeks before I could go back on a horse again. And then I was pregnant. It was wonderful, I cherished every moment. But… soon the doctors said I had to stay calm, and – curse them all – avoid sports of all kinds. So I couldn’t go out anymore. And then, Rapunzel, Gothel came, and took you away. Your father was inconsolable. It took me all my willpower to finally stay by his sides, while I could have been out there, searching for you, instead of… instead of waiting for a miracle that… that came only once I decided to search for you myself,” she said with a loving sigh. “Frederic only wants what’s best for his loved ones. But that doesn’t make it always right. That’s why I want you to stay hidden while he’s down there. Because, even if I can’t be sure he’ll keep you away from the road, I’m sure he’ll try, in the name of keeping you safe.”

Without a word, Rapunzel moved to her mother and embraced her. Both has missed hugs all those years, and while she couldn’t have her father’s hugs, when she knew she would go away soon, she had to cherish every moment. Like her mother had done long ago.

“Thank you,” she whispered in Arianna’s ear, tears falling down her cheeks.

“I’ll do everything for you, my dear,” whispered back Arianna. “And for you too, Cassandra. You’re like a daughter to me.”

“I… thank you, your Majesty.”

“Please, we’re over that. Arianna. I insist.”

“Mom? Will we be able to write to you?”

That nickname wasn’t easy to say for Rapunzel. For so long, her mother wasn’t who she really was. And now, she finally started to associate this word with her loving real mother. And at the soft word, Arianna smiled caringly to her daughter.

“I’d love to. And I have an idea of how we can make it work. Send your letters to Xavier’s house. I’ll be picking them up.”

“If the king finds out, you could be in much more troubles than us,” commented Cassandra.

“I want to know how your journey goes, that’s a risk worth taking. But only if you can send letters. If you can’t, don’t let that stop you from enjoying the journey.”

They were interrupted by Xavier coming near the caravan. King Frederic was next to him, joking at something it seemed.

“Once the coast is clear, I’ll leave you. Take care. I love you both,” said Arianna, inviting both Cassandra and Rapunzel for a last hug before the road.

“I love you too, mom.”

“Take care too, Arianna.”

As Frederic was on the other side of the caravan, Arianna left silently, blowing a last kiss to them, as they closed the doors so that the king wouldn’t suspect their presence. They had other matter more important than to explain who they were when they were trying to leave incognito.

Arianna went away on tiptoes, swooping into the forge, where she took a cloak she had put there earlier to hide herself while she went back to the castle. She walked and crossed the captain’s path, who was nearby as security for her and her husband, and he nodded to her as she walked the hill alone. After all, she had said she had left way earlier. Security was supposed to be gone with her.

Finally, Xavier climbed on the driver’s seat and took the reins. One horse was Fidella, and the other was a horse rented to a farmer, as Xavier usually did when he left the town. Frederic wished Xavier safe travel, and at last, with a gentle whip on the reins, the caravan started. Cobblestones being what they were, the road in town was shaking the vehicle a lot. As soon as they were on the bridge, it was better.

Xavier knocked on the wall to tell the ladies they could go out, and so, they climbed on the roof, Cassandra to stay up there, Rapunzel to come down and sit on the left driver’s seat.

“What is our first stop?” she asked.

“I thought we might go to Old Corona. There’s a man there, Quirin, who comes from a faraway kingdom. He was the one I talked to, when the king asked me about the Sundrop, just before you were born. And with my memories coming back, I remember that he told us about rocks that were a lot like the black rocks we’re following. If he knows where we’re going, he might know the best road.”

“He can be trusted?” checked Cassandra.

“Of course. Now he’s farmer, but before, in his former kingdom, he was part of an elite force. I don’t think he’s told a lot of people though. This kind of change of life is the kind of things a man usually wants to keep secret.”

“Any idea of what happened there?” asked Cassandra.

“Frankly, no. There are stories, but, who’s to tell they’re true?”

“You said every legend is born of truth,” said Rapunzel.

“True, I did. But I know what the people told me. If they don’t tell me the entire truth, I only know a lie.”

“And what if this man wants to keep us here, or does everything so we don’t reach the end of this journey?”

“Cassandra, I fear you have quite a pessimistic thinking. It’s a good thing to ask ourselves about everything, but here, we’ve barely started. Let’s just give ourselves some time before thinking the unthinkable,” advised Xavier. “Depending of what Quirin tells us, we’ll follow the way straight through the rocks, or try to find a way around. Plus, I wonder more and more if it wouldn’t be a great idea to take a stop at Demanitus’ old laboratory in the mountains. He stocked there a lot of his researches, even more than the few I have in Corona or that are kept in the royal library.”

“I say we go to Demanitus’ lab before Old Corona then,” suggested Cassandra. “At least, if this Quirin doesn’t want to help us, we’d have some help to begin with.”

“We can’t. It’s too far away,” reminded her Xavier. “Old Corona is just before the Corona wall. Demanitus’ lab is behind the wall, it’s more or less a day long trip to go there. And with a horse alone. We have a caravan. It’ll be longer.”

A loud thump broke the conversation.

“Did we hit something?” asked Rapunzel, trying to peek under the caravan without falling from her seat.

“I’ll see,” said Xavier with a sigh, giving her the reins before jumping on the ground.

“Not something,” corrected a voice from behind the caravan.

“Oh, sir, I’m sorry, are you hurt?” asked Xavier while helping the knocked over person up.

“Him again?”

“You know him, Cassandra?” checked Xavier, surprised.

“He approached us before you found us the first time,” she explained, coming on the ground. “He calls himself Flynn Rider. He’s the thief, I saw his wanted posters in town.”

“Err, no ma’am, you’re mistaken,” tried Flynn. “You… You’re confusing me with someone else. I mean, Flynn? No, err, I’m… I’m Eugene,” he said in a stroke of genius moment.

“You’re a liar,” she corrected.

“Yeah, you totally told us your name was Flynn Rider,” added Rapunzel, who had come down the caravan.

“Err, nope, not at all, I’m just a… a very good lookalike…”

“And a liar,” stated Xavier. “Never in my whole life I’ve seen someone lie this badly.”

Eugene sighed. He would not get away that easily.

“Right, I told them I was Flynn Rider.”

“Not your real name though. What do you want?” asked him Xavier.

Eugene looked at each three of them, and sighed again. He would have to tell them.

“I need to get away from Corona. The girls know. There’s a witch after me. I need to get away. And fast. Just got kicked out of the inn I stayed in. Oh, and there’s someone else too. Also after me. Face half painted. Certainly another witch. Can you… give me a ride?” he asked with a forced smile.

“Who’s the witch you’re talking about?” asked Xavier.

“The girls know, I told you!”

“He’s talking about my mother,” explained Cassandra.

“So you’re safe,” said Xavier with a shrug. “She’s dead.”

“But, and the other one?”

“For all I know Gothel was the only witch in this part of the world. Unlike what rumors say, there are not a lot of regular magic users. Most of them are like me, only use magic once in a while.”

“You’re… A magic user?” repeated Eugene with a loud afraid gulp.

“Yes, and you have nothing to fear with me. Though, if you try anything, then you’ll have to fear. But I think you’ll fear Cassandra’s swordsmanship more than my magic.”

“Wait, we’re keeping him?” scoffed Cassandra.

“Yes,” confirmed Xavier. “There’s no need to let him run away, knowing he could tell your descriptions to who pays him well. He’s a thief. I bet he knows the roads. Right?”

“Err… yeah, I guess I know the roads. I mean, I’m here and not behind bars, so, I know pretty well the roads,” he finally bragged with a grin.

“Our journey will most likely take us far away, where I’ve never been,” said Xavier. “Better have all the knowledge we can have on our side. Plus, I trust you to keep an eye on him,” he said, winking to Cass, who had from the beginning a hand on the handle of her sword.

“I won’t let you down,” she assured with a hunter’s smirk.

“So, come along, Eugene,” said Rapunzel, who was back on the driver’s seat. “Tell us, where have you been since we found you? You’ve been alone? Here in the forest? Oh, no, you told us about an inn. Tell us all.”

“Err… yeah, right, I’ll tell you. But first, where are we going?”

“Old Corona,” said Xavier, telling the horse to go on with a gentle whip of the reins.

The caravan was back on the road. They talked a lot, well, Rapunzel talked a lot with Flynn Rider, actually called Eugene. They learned his last name was Fitzherbert. He had ducked his head waiting for mockery, but got nothing. Instead, Rapunzel was still very attentive to what he was saying, like a kid captivated by a fairy-tale.

Xavier and Cassandra, driving for one and on the roof for the other, listened carefully to what the new guy would say, still keeping a watchful eye on the road and their surroundings. Though they knew how to battle, though it was plain day, there was no need to risk an ambush in the forest, with a person who could be held for a wealthy ransom and the other for a reward as wealthy, even though there was only one whose identity was known.

~ ~ ~

After more than two months on the roads searching to understand the situation after their centuries-long absence, both persons fallen from the sky found where each would go.

The man, who had found many unintentionally good caregivers, had a whole new wardrobe to fit his usual attire renewed after getting rid of the ragged clothes from the fall. Tromus was now in Corona, learning here and there what had happened recently. People didn’t know a lot.

So he went to a place he had been long ago. It felt like a life-time ago. Which it was, in a way. Several life-times even. But the ledge of the Sundrop was empty of its magical Flower. That couldn’t be good.

Getting into the head of few people on his path, he learned of the queen’s sickness eighteen years ago, and understood. Guess his trustful look and well-dressed manners would serve his interest. He set path to the city island of Corona, not before casting a spell toward a person he didn’t know, far away in the castle. That day, the royal adviser felt ill, and didn’t show when he was summoned. Someone else, unsummoned, appeared at the gates of the city.

Sugracha fell further away, in a land of canyons. Walking with great difficulties without her walking stick, she made a farmer’s cart her own, and rode until the next town. In a plank of the cart, she carved herself a new walking stick. It would be so much more though.

When she arrived in town, she was met by thrown knives and arrows. A street war. Nothing better than disobedience to find a role to play and use these raging people to serve her goal. First thing to do, though, find those in charge, and convince them they would win a lot by letting her help them. That shouldn’t be that difficult.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next stop, Old Corona!


	3. Some help before the road

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Old Corona, here we are!

The caravan’s first stop, Old Corona, was about a day long trip. The roads were clear, thankfully, aside from a flock of sheep brought by their shepherd from a field to another through the road just before the hamlet.

The hamlet of Old Corona was standing where one of the old castles of Corona stood, way before king Herz Der Sonne’s reign. Now, only remained of this old castle just few rocks on a small hill in the forest.

As they arrived into town, a tremor shook the ground. Xavier tried to calm the horses, but they ran toward the houses. Until they stopped, as a raccoon crossed the road, an apple in its mouth.

“Damn! What was that?” asked Xavier, rhetorically as he knew the others couldn’t have the answer. “Anyway, we’re here. Come down everyone, Quirin’s house is this one.”

They put their feet down the ground, and walked to the house. The half bottom of the walls were stones, the half top wood. A few steps stairs climbed up to the door. Xavier, who knew Quirin, if only a little after their argument with the king eighteen years ago, knocked on the wooden door.

“Coming!” said a voice coming from far away inside.

After a few seconds, steps were heard, and the door opened, revealing Quirin on the doorstep.

“Hello, Quirin of Old Corona,” started Xavier. “I need, well, we need,” he corrected himself showing the trio with him, “to speak to you.”

“I’m busy. Can you come back another day?”

“We can’t,” said Cassandra. “Look, sir, we don’t know you, but Xavier told us you could help us. And we need to be on the road soon. We need your help. You can certainly spare some time for us.”

A loud noise came from inside the next house, like a small explosion and the sound of metal falling apart. When the door opened, smoke went loose and a young silhouette appeared, coughing.

“Varian!” shouted Quirin. “Stop these experiments of yours! How many times do I have to tell you? You’re going to get someone hurt!”

“I’m sure I had it this time, dad,” retorted the kid, still coughing dust.

“Inside, now!”

“Quirin, if I may,” said Xavier, “maybe I can help your kid with his experiments, and you can help us with our problem. Win-win.”

“You’d tell Varian to stop messing around?”

“To stop, I don’t know, but to mess around safely, that I can,” assured Xavier.

Quirin sighed. He wouldn’t get rid of the people on his doorstep so easily.

“Come in,” he finally said.

Inside, they found the kid in a corner, scribbling on a piece of paper larger than him. Xavier went to see what he was working on, while Quirin took a jug of water and offered a glass to the others.

“So, what do you want so badly to talk about?” he asked them, handing each of them a glass of water.

“The Sundrop.”

“Xavier, the Sundrop was taken long ago. There’s nothing we can do anymore. If you had just listened to me…”

“The Sundrop is not gone.”

Rapunzel’s voice stopped the rage that started to boil in him. He looked at her, surprised.

“And, who are you to tell the Sundrop isn’t gone?”

“I hold the Sundrop. I… My mother was saved by the Sundrop and its power came to me.”

“You’re… the lost princess,” realized Quirin, yet with doubts in his voice.

Rapunzel nodded, and so did Xavier, when Quirin looked at him, unbelieving her words. The room felt heavy all of a sudden.

“I’m… sorry I was about to send you away. What do you want to know about the Sundrop?”

“Is the Moonstone real, for one?” said Cassandra.

“It most certainly is.”

“What?!” reacted Xavier. “Then why didn’t you say so eighteen years ago when the king asked you how to save his dying wife?”

“I remember saying it was real like it was yesterday! You’re forgetful, Xavier.”

“I didn’t forget,” he corrected, “I just had problems with my memory of these days.”

“I didn’t know you were so old,” commented Quirin.

This caused Xavier to scoff angrily.

“It wasn’t oldness that harmed my memory. It was magic.”

“Magic or age, doesn’t change that with you forgetting what I said, you’re making these people late. You may not have known the Moonstone by yourself, but I have. And again, the Moonstone’s power is far from a healing power. It’s destruction. Death. It would have done nothing for the queen.”

“But you knew that by taking the Sundrop, we’d be awakening the Moonstone and start the situation we’re now in.”

“Yes,” admitted Quirin. “And that’s the danger I warned king Frederic of. But then what good would knowing the Moonstone have done? The king would have taken the Sundrop anyway. And even you convinced me it was the right thing to do. Now, you want my help, let me know,” he said, before turning back toward Cassandra and Rapunzel. “Did Xavier tell you about my old kingdom?”

“Not much,” said Rapunzel.

“Right. There are things you need to know. When the Sundrop’s Flower was taken, blacks rocks appeared. You saw them?”

“Who didn’t?” asked Eugene, leaning lazily against the wall near Xavier and Varian.

“A lot of people it seems. Wait, don’t I know you?” verified Quirin, suspicious.

“I don’t think so. Go on, I’d like to hear your story.”

“It’s not a story. I’m going to get some maps, it’ll help you understand.”

Without another word, he left the room and climbed the stairs to the first floor. They heard the rustle up there, as Quirin moved a lot of things, until it stopped and the click of a lock opening was heard. When he came back few minutes after leaving, he put on the table a pile of maps, dirty of spending too much time up there without much cleaning.

He showed them first a map of the known world, where appeared Corona, the ancient frontier with Saporia, and the current frontiers of the Seven Kingdoms and Equis. Out there, toward the north-east of the map, there were uncharted territories, but for which he had a map too, though it was a very undetailed one. Up there, after unclaimed lands where reigned a sacred abandoned tree, the Great Tree, was the Dark Kingdom. At the sight of the Great Tree, a shiver shook Xavier, as he remembered the battle against Zhan Tiri and her minions, and the near death of Gothel, who he still considered his friend at the time.

“Right, so out there is the Dark Kingdom. That’s where the Moonstone is. To go there, you need to go through the Cursed Tree.”

“The Cursed Tree?” repeated Xavier. “It’s called the Great Tree.”

“Cursed, Sacred, Great, who cares,” said Quirin. “It’s a giant massive and magic tree. Hollow. The path is inside. But it’s a real maze. Most importantly, it won’t be empty. Do you know of the Brotherhood?”

Everyone, even Xavier, shook their head.

“The Brotherhood is the name of the elite force of the Dark Kingdom. We were discarded twenty-four years ago, if my memory is correct. Our liege, king Edmund, tried to destroy the Moonstone and save his kingdom from its destructive power. But he failed, and the Moonstone only grew stronger. He ordered everyone to leave for their safety. We were sent on the roads, in hope of finding a place where we’d be accepted.”

He moved the maps, to show the six kingdoms of the Alliance and Equis around Corona.

“We went everywhere. Some stayed on the road, many settled. Corona is one the last kingdoms before the sea. We weren’t a lot to make it there. Many stayed before, in Koto, Ingvarr, and well, pretty much all the other kingdoms.”

“What does it have to do with the Moonstone?” asked Cassandra.

“The Brotherhood, since its creation centuries ago, is bond to protect the Moonstone,” explained Quirin. “We can’t use its power. Many tried, but all failed. So, to be sure the Moonstone doesn’t hurt the kingdom more than it had already done, we protect it. If the Moonstone thinks it’s safe, it won’t attack, it’ll stay passive, dormant. And… What are you doing?”

Quirin turned to the corner of the room. Varian was still sketching a new invention of his, under the careful eye of Xavier. But Eugene was looking around, and had in hand a piece of metal.

“Put that down where you found it,” strongly advised Quirin, a fist on the table.

“It’s okay dad,” said Varian, “I need this, Flynn was simply handing it to me.”

“Flynn?”

“Err, I told him,” tried Eugene to not be nearly arrested twice in a day, “I’m not called Flynn.”

“Yes you are,” affirmed Varian. “You look just like Flynn Rider, the hero, the swashbuckler, swords-master, super-cool thief! I read all your books and saw your posters!”

“Oh boy…” whispered Eugene.

“You’re a thief?” asked Quirin with a raised eyebrow.

“No I’m not.”

“Yes he is,” said Cassandra at the same time, earning her a dead-eye from Eugene, which she didn’t care about.

“Hey, here, I’m giving your son this metal junk back, and we’ll be okay” he said bending over the kid to give him the metal piece.

But as he bent over, the pendant on his collar fell from his shirt. And before he could put it back under the fabric, it was in Quirin’s hand. And Quirin was furious.

“Where did you get this?” he asked, raging, firmly holding the circle pendant.

“Hey! Back off!” struggled Eugene.

“This pendant! Who did you stole it from? I lost mine months ago!”

“This? I didn’t stole it! I’ve had it for years! And what’s with you people and this pendant anyway?”

Quirin let go of the pendant, so suddenly Eugene nearly fell backward, if Xavier hadn’t caught him.

“Who else asked you about this pendant?” asked Quirin.

“Some crazy lady in the woods.”

“Care to describe her?”

“Why do you even care?”

“I don’t care who you really are, but this pendant comes from the Dark Kingdom. Where you’re going. Three shards and a circle. It’s the sigil of the Brotherhood. If you’ve had it for years, do you even know how you got it?”

“I only know I had it before the orphanage. Nothing more.”

Quirin grumbled. That wasn’t the kind of answer he hoped to hear. If the man had the pendant for that long and had never stole it, it might mean something the knight didn’t even want to consider.

“If you’re going to have company on your journey,” he said, trying to calm himself, “then you’d better tell me who the woman you met was.”

“I don’t have her name. She was tall. White hair in a big ponytail. Dressed with furs. Black sword. And I think half of her face was painted. But it was night. I’m not sure.”

“Adira,” whispered Quirin, thoughtful, then stating aloud so they could hear him: “you’re going to have company on your path.”

“Who is this Adira?” asked Rapunzel.

Quirin didn’t answer immediately.

“What trouble are you putting these people through, Xavier?” he asked, not even hoping for an answer.

“We don’t have time for riddles!” reminded them Cassandra. “Who is this Adira?”

“She’s part of the Brotherhood. Of of our fiercest warriors. Some like me settled, others like Adira stayed on the roads. She always thought that finding the Sundrop would save our kingdom by uniting it with the Moonstone. But to us, the Sundrop is a fairy-tale, the same the Moonstone is for you here in Corona.”

“So… she’s on our side?” guessed Rapunzel.

“I hope. If she tells you of any path to take on your journey, don’t listen. Take the path you want to take. Things were pretty bad in the end, in the Dark Kingdom. She might want to take the Sundrop and bring it to the Moonstone, even if the Sundrop is within someone.”

He walked around the room, looking for something. Everyone’s gaze except his son’s, busy on his contraption’s schematics, followed him. Quirin went to a desk, swept the sawdust and took a magnifying glass hidden under it. He then went back to Eugene, who took a defensive step back against the wall.

“Show me your pendant,” ordered Quirin.

“I’ll have it back?”

“Yes.”

Eugene hesitated, but finally gave up and took the collar with the metal pendant off his neck. Quirin examined it with the magnifying glass, walking toward the light of a candle, then of the window when the candle didn’t give enough light.

“This surely isn’t mine,” he said first. “Mine has a dent on the middle shard. Yours doesn’t.”

“Told you I didn’t steal it,” bragged Eugene.

“That said, all of these pendants that were made have a silver filigree between the shards. If you don’t know it exists, you never see it. Now, where might be my loupe?”

“Didn’t take it this time,” said Varian without looking up from his schematics. “And your pendant is in the left pocket of your costume you wore at the neighbor’s weeding this summer.”

“Varian. Why didn’t you say anything? I was looking for it.”

“Didn’t know it was important. Say, Xavier, how would you do so that this piece here works with this one up there?”

Quirin grumbled and went to search for the loupe. It was near where the magnifying glass was, under the sawdust.

“Now, the filigree holds the name of the person who the pendant belongs to. This one says… _Prince Horace of the Dark Kingdom_.”

“Horace!” reacted Eugene with a loud laugh. “What kind of name is this?”

“The name of the heir of the Dark Kingdom,” said Quirin, serious.

“Oh, right, sorry,” said Eugene, regaining his composure.

“Named after his grand-father. He was sent away as a babe, to protect him from the dangers of the Moonstone. One of us in the Brotherhood was entrusted with the prince. But as soon as they were out of the kingdom, everybody went separate ways and, we never heard of any of them again. Now, my question would be if you are the prince of the Dark Kingdom, since you have this pendant.”

“I think I’d know if I was a prince. And I’m certainly not named Horace,” said Eugene, a bit mocker.

“I guess so. But you have the pendant. It was made for the baby even before his birth. We always knew that if anything was to happen, it would be the only way for the prince to reclaim his heritage, the kingdom’s legacy. And as far as I know, it was the only way to be sure of the identity of the prince.”

“Soooooo, I’m a prince?” checked Eugene, suddenly unsure whether or not he wanted to know.

“I can’t say for sure. By going to the Dark Kingdom, you’ll find out. And if you are the prince, and only if you are, then I apologize for insulting you.”

“That? Well, if I am that prince, you can be sure we’ll talk about it again.”

Quiring sent him a death glare.

“Just kidding!” Eugene excused himself, backing off.

“Bravo! So, all that was really fun, but now, where is the Dark Kingdom? How do we get there? And is there any danger we might face?” asked Cassandra.

Quirin gave Eugene back the pendant, and went back the table.

“I’ll give you the maps I have,” he said, rolling said maps. “But I can’t accompany you. I need to be here for Old Corona. Plus, if the king asks if anyone has seen his daughter…”

“The king doesn’t know,” cut Xavier.

“He doesn’t?” repeated Quirin, surprised.

“No. He can’t. Only queen Arianna knows. And the captain of the guards. We need to keep all this as secret as possible. And this goes for you too, Varian,” said Xavier to the kid working beside him.

“Hmm? Yeah, of course, I won’t tell anyone. Do you want any help with the caravan? I could help you make it faster.”

“Varian. No,” firmly said Quirin. “Listen, you have many great ideas, but this time, they’ll just use a normal way of transportation. And while they’re away, you’ll think of your vehicle.”

“Okay, I’m on it.”

Rolling the large blueprint he was working on, Varian left the room, his mind already thinking of something else. It was so absorbed in his thinking, he barely hit the wall right next to the wide open door. Hopefully, he didn’t miss the stairs. At the sight, Quirin sighed, then turned again to face his guests.

“So. Let me get this clear. I have in a room the lost princess of Corona, who is still supposed to be lost.”

Rapunzel nodded.

“And possibly the lost prince of my home kingdom.”

“Frankly, it feels weird to call myself a prince, but, I accept it gladly,” said Eugene.

“Seems like it,” said Xavier.

“So what now?” asked Cassandra. “We just go, that’s it?”

“Pretty much. We’ll go to Demanitus’ lab in the mountains. It’s more or less on the path,” reminded Xavier. “Then, we’ll go straight to the Great Tree. And we’ll be able to locate the Moonstone, if those maps aren’t precise enough. We’ll see on the way. Quirin. Thank you for your help. I know it’s a lot to ask.”

“Just be careful on your way to the Dark Kingdom. This… Flynn, he met Adira. But she may not be the only remaining member of the Brotherhood. And some of us won’t let you speak before a fight. I wouldn’t.”

“We know how to fight,” sharply reminded him Cassandra.

“I’m sure of it. But they trained for way longer than you were alive. You still have a lot to learn. Don’t underestimate them. Many tried. It was deadly. But never for the Brotherhood. Now go, before Varian builds you some crazy machine you’d have to take.”

Quirin guided them to the door. The caravan was still there, untouched, thankfully. Noise of metal scrapping and smoke was coming from the barn next door. At least, Varian wasn’t tinkering on the caravan.

They climbed back in, Rapunzel and Eugene on the driver’s seats while Xavier and Cassandra went in the back room to check the maps and prepare the journey till Demanitus’ laboratory.

~ ~ ~

In Corona, a meeting was taking place in the throne room. The king and queen were both there, as was the captain of the guards. The royal adviser, Nigel, wasn’t, as he had fallen terribly ill. He had been advising king Frederic for years, after the king’s former adviser and uncle passed, and even before, when they were kids and Nigel, as son of the then captain, was one of the very few friend a crown prince can make.

That day, Nigel couldn’t be there. And someone came and offered to help. The royals were skeptical at first, yet accepted an audience with the man. As soon as he was in the room, Tromus was here to stay. He smirked at the thought of all he could do from here. The man in the shadows, nobody would think about him. All for the better.

Where she was, Sugracha had found the leader of the town on the road she had arrived. He wasn’t a mayor, he had taken the city by force. And Vardaros didn’t care. They kept living their lives, and the Baron protected them. If his only presence didn’t protect them already, he had countless men and women ready to fight in his name. Time to add one more, and add the element of magic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember, remember, not everything is always as it seems... 👀


	4. In the hall of the Mountain King

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A stowaway kid, Demanitus’ lab and secrets, monkeys… and two mages getting allies…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (No reference to Peer Gynt other than the title)

Demanitus’ laboratory in the mountain usually was a week long trip from Old Corona. The caravan arrived in three days. They did so because a young inventor called Varian thought well to hide in the night part of the vehicle to start building something that would help them go faster. And he did.

When, hours after leaving Old Corona, the group noticed his presence, he had almost finished. Of course, as soon as they knew they sent Owl with a message for Quirin. And Owl was back with another message from the father asking them in the calmest way possible on paper to escort his son back home. Except said son didn’t want to.

While Owl went to and back from Old Corona several times, Varian installed with the help of Xavier – as to be sure nothing would be broken in the caravan or the kid himself if he did it alone – a system of gears connected to the wheels and a crank between the driver’s seats. The crank would turn a mainspring, and apply pressure on it. Then, thanks to the cogs on the barrel containing it, the pressure in the spring would be released to the gears next to it. This mechanism, that was not without inspiration from clockwork, was supposed to allow the caravan to travel without the need of horses, and, supposedly, go even faster.

The mainspring broke when they stopped the first try. After a run they glued them to their seats by the speed. Even the horses that had been asked to sit on the thankfully strong floor of the back room were dizzy when they stopped.

But Varian wasn’t one to abandon an invention. After insisting over and over through the many letters with his father, he would finally join the group till Demanitus’ laboratory, and if pieces of metal that could help were still of use after the many decades, he would try again. But most of all, he would come back to Old Corona when the group would leave the kingdom.

At last, now here they were. The Mountain where Demanitus had built his laboratory, a couple of mountains away from the device against the magical blizzard conjured by Zhan Tiri.

The entrance was as Xavier had left it centuries ago. Closed and blocked by a landslide. That was how he thought Demanitus had left the place. Hidden. That was before the ever curious kid with them noticed a sculpted stone behind rocks. A door of sort. They left the caravan on the path, not that there would be anyone coming through these mountains anytime soon.

Rapunzel was the first in front of the door, a pen and a sketchbook in hand. As she tried to take a render of the carvings on the stones, she saw some letters among the drawings.

“I grow, but do not live,” she read. “I need air but do not breath. It’s a riddle!”

“Yes,” said Xavier. “Demanitus liked riddles. It’s not a surprise he would put one there. Though this one is simple. It’s…”

“No, let me, let me!” cut him Varian, stamping with impatience and curiosity.

“Very well. What say you then?”

“Err, aren’t we supposed to be like, in a hurry to go to this Dark Kingdom?” asked Eugene.

“We can take a little time for this,” reminded him Xavier. “After all, Varian will have to go back to Old Corona. Better let him enjoy the time in this place.”

“But, I don’t want to go back to Old Corona,” complained Varian. “I want to help you with this quest! Imagine all the things I could learn!”

“You sound like a little Demanitus,” said Xavier, nostalgic. “But we don’t know how long this quest will take. It’s for your safety you have to stay in Old Corona with your dad.”

At this unwise choice of words, Cassandra scoffed and cleared her throat.

“Just a thought, Xavier. With Raps and I here, you won’t win an argument by telling the kid he has to stay somewhere _for his safety_.”

“I… err, you’re right,” he admitted. “I didn’t mean to remind you of Gothel… I shouldn’t have phrased it like that. But, his father wants him home, that’s not something I can change. What if we find someone from the Brotherhood and Varian’s hurt? Or worse?”

“I can take care of myself,” retorted Varian, holding a torch.

Without listening to whatever answer he could get, he walked to the door, and held the torch and its fire to the wall.

“That I see,” simply said Xavier, when the wall lighted up with the warmth of the flame.

A liquid, oil-like, appeared in beads through the pores of the stone, and ran through the carved grooves. It seemed insensitive to gravity, as the oil ran up until a mechanism that, when there was enough oil, was activated. A succession of gears inside the stones could be heard, and before anything else happened, the ground trembled. When the tremor calmed, the stone half hidden behind the earth and vegetation of the landslide moved under the mountain’s side.

“Incredible,” whispered Xavier, amazed. “I’ve only seen this kind of work in his many theories. I never thought Demanitus would have built it in the flesh. Or stone, in that case.”

“You know what’s in there?” asked Varian, holding his torch to light the entrance of the corridor opened before them.

“Demanitus’ laboratory and tomb. He wanted to stay where he worked. Let’s go. If there’s anything that can be of use in our quest, we better find it soon.”

Chirps from far inside the cave welcomed them. Varian entrusted Xavier with the torch, choosing to let him lead the group. What surprised them when they had walked to the point they couldn’t see the entrance anymore behind them was the light coming from the chamber ahead.

“Careful,” warned Xavier. “I have a feeling we’re not alone…”

“Ah! What is that?!” shouted Rapunzel, nearly jumping on Cassandra’s shoulders to get away from the incoming threat.

“It’s a… monkey,” said Varian, while the little visitor walked on all fours around them.

“They have lived here for all this time, and they stayed, they grew,” realized Xavier, extending a hand toward the little simian.

“Why would a monkey be there?!” asked Eugene, clearly losing his mind by their presence in the mountain.

“Demanitus saved a group of monkeys from a circus, long ago,” explained Xavier as he walked, and the monkey climbed on his shoulder. “He helped them settle here. And as much as it pains me to say it, he ran experiences on them too. He invented a machine so he could switch minds with them and thanks to that, he went to spy on Zhan Tiri. I’m sure we’ll find more information here. Come, it’s this way.”

They arrived in a large chamber, from which came the light, emanating from luminescent flora scattered around the place. It was frankly a very surreal view. There, they saw that the monkeys weren’t of any known species anymore. They had adapted over the centuries and generations. Their eyes were noticeably wider, capturing as much light as possible. They stayed behind branches and vines, statues and old machines that were probably out of use by now.

Xavier took the lead of the group.

“We’re looking for a library. If Demanitus has written anything on the Moonstone, even theories, he would have put them here. He might very well have hidden it behind a fake wall, like the front door. He had became a bit paranoid in his last years. Said the mountain would call for tomb robbers. We find his researches, and we’re on our way. Nothing else. Is that clear?”

He turned to the others, who all nodded, even Varian who was already taking notes from an old book on a pedestal.

“Right. Let’s scatter to cover more ground. We’ll meet here in an hour.”

He lighted torches for each of them with the one he had, and went in the shadows of the odd forest that had grown there since Demanitus came there.

Each of them walked away in a different direction. Except Rapunzel, who stayed in the main area at the end of the entrance corridor, looking around, both astonished by the grandeur of the place, and a bit afraid by such big cave in the mountains, when she had lived most of her life somewhere totally different.

“You coming, Blondie?” asked Eugene few meters away, when he saw her not moving.

She looked at him a moment, he was offering a welcoming hand, as he saw she wasn’t in her element in this strange place. But instead of walking toward him, she went the opposite direction, until she paused when she was behind a curtain of vines. There was in front of her a shadow she knew, and she went to it, grabbing Cassandra’s hand.

“Cass, can I stay close to you?”

“We have to hurry,” said Cassandra, before noticing her troubled expression. “Are you alright?”

“I… I feel weird with this Eugene… he seems nice but…”

“A bit too much outgoing?” guessed Cassandra.

“Something like that.”

Cassandra smiled to her and put her hand on Rapunzel’s.

“Stay close to me then. Where to you want to explore?”

“This way,” she decided, as she showed a path leading to what seemed like another corridor.

Everyone searched the place. They discovered, or in Xavier’s case, re-discovered many rooms. Chemistry laboratories, storage rooms, a single bedroom, a channeled brook running with fresh water before leaving the mountain somewhere further away, a very functional kitchen, and monkeys everywhere. But still, no library.

Xavier supposed Demanitus either found a way to store his researches somewhere else, or they weren’t the first persons to come in the tomb. The only one truly happy there was Varian, who had his hands full of torn scrolls snatched from the monkeys’ paws. Still, they weren’t about the Moonstone, or even about how to build a vehicle. They weren’t of any use. Or were they?

As the others were rummaging in their thoughts where they could have not yet searched, Varian went in the center of the room, scribbling a thing or two, and spread out the scrolls and maps and schematics on the floor. The schematics of machines had numbers, lengths, heights, or weights. But what he had found looked more like coordinates. He took a map and started to trace lines between them, searching a thing on a scroll, drawing points on the map, until he saw appear a kind of constellation between several points that seemed to have nothing in common. Still, there was like a pattern, a spiral of sort. The others started to come behind him, watching at his thinking put down on the paper.

“It looks like some kinds of monster,” noticed Rapunzel, looking at the points.

“A monster?” repeated Eugene, a bit mocker. “That’s just a bunch of useless points on a map.”

“No map is useless, Eugene,” sharply corrected Xavier. “And I concur, this constellation could look like a monster. And I know exactly who.”

“Zhan Tiri?” supposed Cassandra.

“Precisely,” confirmed Xavier.

“But why would Demanitus put a connect-the-dots of his nemesis?” asked Varian, trying to figure out a way to link each point.

“That I don’t understand. Maybe this leads to a location where he hid the researches we’re looking for. He hid the key, so that only the witty could decipher his riddles. Clever, Demanitus. Always ahead of everyone.”

“Excuse me?” scoffed Eugene. “Only the witty? Nope, not buying it. We only found the map because the kid didn’t search for the library while all of us spent an entire hour and even more to climb stairs and open rooms that smelled centuries-old monkeys.”

“Well, I thought we needed a library,” admitted Xavier, “but we never needed a library. If it’s any consolation, I made you lose your time. But now, let’s take the map, the scrolls and find where Demanitus wants us to go. Unless you want to stay here with the monkeys.”

“Nope, I’m going, thank you very much,” Eugene said, turning on his heels toward the entrance corridor.

Xavier chuckled, and bent to help Varian with the scrolls, while Cassandra and Rapunzel rolled the wide map.

“Another riddle,” mumbled Cassandra. “Didn’t this man Demanitus have a life or what?”

“Well, he once told me he was engaged to his work,” recalled Xavier. “I guess I get that from him.”

“You never had someone in your life?” asked Rapunzel, surprised of such a lonely long life.

“Not really,” admitted the blacksmith. “Though I once thought Gothel as a friend, a sister maybe. We were both our parents’ only child. Demanitus had always been the master, the one who knows, the teacher. And Zhan Tiri and her minions,” he said with disgust, “I wish I never knew any of them. After that, in Corona, well, there was the war, there was no time to befriend anyone. Not that I was running after that anyway.”

“Zhan Tiri’s minions,” repeated Cassandra. “You never really told us about them. What were they like?”

“Painfully irritating. The man, Tromus, was always looking down on you. He had his own sense of honor in a way, I can give him that. And the woman, Sugracha, she never talked much. But she sees, she listens. And even if we saw what Tromus was doing, Sugracha was always in the shadows. Don’t trust people in the shadows. They are often dangerous. Because we tend to forget they’re here. We underestimate their strike. I never really knew how powerful they were. But no matter, now they’re gone with Zhan Tiri. They can’t come back.”

“They really can’t?” checked Cassandra.

“If they could, Zhan Tiri could. And if Zhan Tiri was here, she would have made her move.”

“Maybe she stays in the shadows so we’re not trying to attack her,” suggested Rapunzel.

“None of them can be in this world. They were sent away. They are not here.”

~ ~ ~

“So, mister Matthews, you’re saying you offer your service as historian to help us while my royal adviser is ill?”

“Absolutely, your Majesty,” affirmed Tromus. “I can stay as long as you need me. I have nowhere else to go, as the last university where I was in Bayangor burned few weeks ago. Such a tragedy. I told myself it was time to see the world, and when I heard of the dilemmas you were facing, it was like a reflex, to come to you.”

“We’re happy to be of any help,” said queen Arianna, “but be assured that once Nigel is well once again, you won’t be needed anymore, mister Matthews.”

“That I understand, your Majesty. But before that, I assure you, I will do all in my power to help you as much as I can.”

“We’re glad to hear it,” said king Frederic. “Come with us. If you’re to help us, there are some things you should know.”

Frederic left his throne, seconded by Arianna, and both led mister Matthews to the council room, where the map of Corona was on its table. All three took a side of the table, and looked down on it, while Frederic was showing parts of the world, both on the model and on the painted map behind him on the wall.

“Mister Matthews, you are not without knowing the troubles that are beyond our frontiers.”

“I’m sorry, what troubles, your Majesty?” asked Tromus, who hadn’t heard of any trouble since his come back in Corona.

“Corona is mostly free of any crime,” explained Arianna, “thanks to the hard policy we installed after our child disappearance, eighteen years ago. But now that the kingdom is mostly safe, there are still troubles outside our borders. You will be tasked to learn of this situation, and help us find ways to secure Corona. We can’t allow anything to happen to our people.”

“I must have forgotten something,” said Tromus, “because I don’t recall any prince disappearance lately.”

“Princess,” corrected Frederic, with a suspicious arched eyebrow. “What do you not know?”

“A lot as it seems. I admit that, while I was in Bayangor, I wasn’t exactly focused on what was happening beyond the borders. I might have missed a thing or two.”

Frederic and Arianna exchanged a confused look. Were they making the right choice by trusting this man? Somehow, there was something about him that made him very trustful. So, so, very trustful…

“You will learn,” said Frederic to settle the conversation. “Captain,” he called the soldier by the door, “escort mister Matthews to a guest room.”

“I’m on it, your Majesty. Mister, come with me,” he invited the newcomer to follow him.

When he was out of the room, silence fell. Frederic and Arianna had their eyes on the map, one on Corona’s island, the other on the mountains far behind the wall, where her heart was away. Outside, the sun fell slowly behind the sea. When the light was too dim, and they still hadn’t light a candle or a chandelier, Frederic cleared his throat, only noticing his daydreaming, and helping his wife out of hers.

“We should… Get to dinner. What do you say?”

“This Matthews, he seems nice, Fred, but, there’s something off, I don’t know what.”

“Arianna, my darling, since this regrettable meeting with Xavier three months ago, you’re not the same. What is bothering you?”

“Nothing,” she lied.

Not knowing where her daughter was and why she even sent her on this quest was bothering her. Why now? Why her?

“I know it’s strange to invite in our walls someone we still don’t know much about, but I asked to check what he says. He seems to tell the truth. And with Nigel currently unable to assure his job, I still have a kingdom to lead and diplomacy I’m obliged to.”

“I know, Fred, I know. I’ll keep an eye on this Matthews if I were you, that’s all.”

“Of course, Arianna.”

He extended his hand, inviting her to leave the room, yet she walked beside, ahead of him in the corridor. He sighed, silently, and followed her after closing the doors.

~ ~ ~

“I’m not sure I can trust a magic user,” said the Baron, fiddling with his ruby ring.

“I can be of much more use to you than just any magic user,” assured Sugracha, hunched as always above her wooden walking stick.

The Baron was thoughtful. He exchanged a few looks with his men around the garden, checking the security. Finally, his glance settled back on the unexpected visitor in front of him down the stairs.

“I’ll give you a test. Pass it, and you’re in. Fail, and you won’t live a day more.”

“I accept, Baron.”

“Very well,” he mused while standing up, walking toward her, thinking. “Not long ago, my daughter has been wronged. And I have been wronged too. By the same man. I started to think I’d leave this old story behind me. But no. Your presence will be a game-changer. This will be your test. Use your powers, whatever you need, to find this man for me. And I’ll pay him a visit. He owes me a lot, and to my Stalyan, a lot more.”

“I’m sure this will be fun, Baron.”

“Fun?” he repeated in a loud laugh, that made Sugracha think she made a mistake in her choice of words. “Fun! Yes! I like the way you think, miss… What did you say your name was?”

“Sugarby, Baron. At your service.”

“Yes. Miss Sugarby. As long you haven’t passed your test, I’ll have you stay in town. Don’t die out there. If you have as many powers as you claim, I’ll need you alive.”

“That I know, Baron. But,” she said, stamping her walking stick once on the marble ground, “I’ll stay here tonight.”

She hit a second time the ground with her stick. The Baron stiffened and for a moment, his eyes turned bright. As quickly as it appeared, it went away. When he was back, he shook his head and looked at her.

“Stay here? Yes. I can deal with that. Come.”

He proposed her his arm, which she gladly took to help her climb the few steps of the stairs, before leading her to the main door on the right of the stone stage. There, sitting and sharpening a set of daggers, a long-haired brunette woman watched them walk.

“Who’s that, dad?” she asked.

“Our new ally,” answered the Baron with a blank voice, still under the spell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From now on, Tromus and Sugracha will be more and more out of character from canon. Mostly because it's an AU, sure, but also because, well, we don’t know them much after all and it was easier to just write over the canon ^^


	5. Regrettable discoveries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magical discoveries at Demanitus' lab and in Corona...

While Quirin rode to the mountain, the caravan stayed near the road for few days. The ex-member of the Brotherhood was furious when he found out his son had ran away, even with a person he could trust. Even when Xavier told him the great discoveries Varian had made in Demanitus’ tomb with the map, Quirin was still raging. But it wasn’t anger. It was fear.

If Owl hadn’t come soon enough with a message from the caravan saying they had his son with them, then where could he have been? With all these unstable machines of his in Old Corona, he could’ve been hurt or worse and Quirin wouldn’t have known it because the machines weren’t making any noise, which at the time was more soothing than alarming. And the ex-knight hated himself for thinking that.

Now, to get Varian to go with him back home was proving difficult. The kid had found a place on the map, where Demanitus wanted them to go with certainty, and all he wanted now was to go there with the team. The call of adventure, of ancient knowledge, was way more appealing than the call of home and exploding machines. And Quirin sighed, knowing that, and remembering his younger years in the Brotherhood.

That said, as he went to the group in the mountains, he took something with him, something he had nearly forgotten the existence of until Xavier came and brought the Sundrop and Moonstone’s stories with him the other day. There was an object, a precious one, that Quirin had in his home, that he had to protect, an object that was hidden in a hollowed book.

It was a cylinder, not much bigger than a sword’s handle, that could only be opened with a key. A key he couldn’t find because _someone_ thought good to melt it to forge another key for another contraption a couple of months ago.

“This was given to me when we all left the Dark Kingdom,” explained Quirin to the group sat on logs around a fire behind the caravan. “I don’t know what’s in there, we were tasked to not discover what we were guarding, so we couldn’t be forced to reveal what it was.”

“We’ll find a way to open it,” assured Xavier. “I’m a blacksmith, creating locks is my thing. We’ve got a thief, he might know a thing of two about locks too.”

“No lock can resist me,” bragged Eugene, puffed up with his own pride, before coughing loudly.

“Are you alright?” asked Rapunzel next to him.

“Yeah, yeah, probably nothing. Just some flu these monkey gave us I bet.”

“None of these monkeys were sick, and if they were, we’d all be coughing,” said Xavier. “More probably just a cold. We’re in the mountains after all.”

“How does it feel?” asked Rapunzel, leaning curiously.

“Err… How does what feel?” checked Eugene.

“Being sick. I’ve never been sick. The Sundrop,” she simply explained.

“Oh. Well, you feel bad few days, you’re all mopey, and… you don’t want to know.”

“You, mopey? I don’t think I’d regret seeing that,” commented Cass beside them.

Quirin put a hand on his mouth to hide his snicker. But Eugene saw him.

“Ah ah, laugh, right.” He coughed. “But right now, I’m sick.”

“Do you want me to heal you?”

“Raps, no need to use your power on this guy.”

“Cass…” Rapunzel warned her with a death glare.

“Okay,” accepted Cass, before leaning in to Rapunzel’s ear. “But between you and me, this stare makes you even cuter.”

“Oh stop it, you!” giggled Rapunzel, unsuccessfully trying to hide her blush against her shoulder. “Well… Eugene, take the hair,” she said, launching on his lap an armful of braided golden hair as he watched her, bewildered. “And now, watch.”

She sat on her crossed legs, and started to hum the incantation, unable to sing with the knowing grin on her face. She knew what was coming. What should be coming any moment now… What should have already started to come. Odd. Her smile vanished, leaving her with a confused face.

“Do… You feel any better?” she asked Eugene.

He opened his mouth to answer, but coughed.

“Not much…” she understood.

The others were gathering around them, seemingly not understanding the confused turned horrified expression that was both on Rapunzel and Cassandra’s face.

“Xavier!” shouted Rapunzel. “My hair! My… the Sundrop! It doesn’t heal!”

Xavier stayed silent for a minute, trying to fill the gap he was missing to understand the dire situation. He knew her hair could heal, that the Sundrop’s power was appearing through her hair. Yet, never while she was in Corona did they had to see the power first-handed. If they needed the Sundrop, he had the earth in his garden, some of it he had taken for the journey. He wouldn’t go bother Rapunzel, who had been used for years for this power.

“When the Sundrop works, what normally happens?” he asked.

“My hair glows.”

“Her hair glows,” said Cassandra simultaneously.

“It does that even if it’s not you who’s singing?” checked the blacksmith.

“I… don’t really remember, but I think, yes,” said Rapunzel, checking in her oldest memories.

“Each time I sang in my home for the cutting I had, your hair had never ever glowed, then,” noticed Xavier.

“What does it mean?” asked Cassandra.

“I don’t know,” admitted Xavier. “If the Sundrop was gone, we would have seen something happen, a reaction from the Moonstone, certainly. All I now know is that we better hurry. The rocks showing us the path are maybe our only chance to fully understand what’s going on.”

“The rocks!” realized Rapunzel. “At dusk, before the night you found Cass and I, there were the rocks, and, they touched my hair, and there was this big explosion. Could it be that?”

“An explosion?” repeated Quirin. “More than two months ago? It was you? We felt tremors till Old Corona.”

“Maybe, by touching the rocks, you inherited part of the power of the Moonstone and it’s blocking the Sundrop’s power,” supposed Xavier.

“But… is the Sundrop still in me?” checked Rapunzel, evident fear in her trembling voice.

Xavier didn’t answer right away. He put a hand on his beard and let his eyes wander around, thinking. Finally, he took a deep breath.

“I think you still have the Sundrop in you. If you didn’t, well, it’s science. You’ve never been sick. Your body isn’t used to sickness. If you hadn’t the Sundrop anymore, you’d have caught every sickness you could encounter. But you haven’t. So, this leads me to think you still have the Sundrop.”

“I guess you’re right…” sighed Rapunzel, only half convinced by the explanation.

“Hey, Blondie,” said Eugene, moving to lean against her, “you’ve got an invincible power that can cure you! It’s just an off day!”

He tried to put his arm on her back, letting the braid on his lap fall on the ground. But as soon as she felt him against her, Rapunzel froze for a second and darted away toward the side of the caravan. Cassandra stood up, putting a firm hand on Eugene’s shoulder as he went to stand up too. He tried to argue, but a cough caught him. She went away to the caravan’s door.

“Why do you hate me so much?” she heard him ask.

She turned around. He was right behind her. For a sick man, he could still be surprisingly stealthy.

“Because you’re a leech, an opportunist. And even if you’re some lost prince, that doesn’t change a thing. What you want, you take, you steal.”

“Do I? I didn’t know that. I’m like you,” he said, before getting cut by another cough. “I want to live. We just do it differently.”

“Say that to my sword,” she retorted, opening the side door of the caravan.

She climbed the few steps of the ladder and entered, not minding him outside, and closed the door, ending the conversation.

The room didn’t have much light. Cassandra searched around to open one of the windows, the one of the roof or the one to the front, no matter, as long as they could have some light. Not that she’d mind having her hands finding Rapunzel instead, but now wasn’t a time for fun. Using the perfect knowledge she had of the small space, she soon found the window opening on the front of the caravan. Light flowed right in, gray and dark as they were already in the afternoon of a cloudy day, and the window was currently to the east.

“Shut the light,” she heard Rapunzel mumble beside her on the bed.

She was sat on the bed, back against the wall, her hair falling down the bed and under it, hugging her knees, her head nowhere to be seen behind the cascade of golden half unbraided locks.

“Raps…”

Cassandra didn’t have to say anything. She was never the best with words. So, she sat beside her friend, and hugged her tightly. Rapunzel stayed frozen in place for a moment, but let herself melt into the touch, returning the much-needed hug. Cassandra could feel the wetness of her tears on her shoulder. She started to massage her back, hoping to help her release the trouble going through her.

“Cass… What if… what if I don’t have my powers anymore? That I can’t heal? If anything happens to you, to anyone, I won’t be able to help you, to save you. I’m useless. We should have stayed in Corona…”

“Raps, no, you’re everything but useless. You heard Xavier. You still have the Sundrop within you. There’s just something blocking it. Once we find this Moonstone, you’ll have your power again. But until then, there’s no way you’ll be useless, Raps. You’re cheerful, you lift everyone’s spirit. You’re beautiful, and funny, and the reason I found the force to leave Mother. Without you, I’d still hide my swordsmanship to her, I’d still be at the cottage, and I would never have thought that there could be more than just myself, and Mother, and the cottage, and the visits from the captain. You opened me to the world, Raps. We’re out there thanks to you. You’re not useless. You’re our lighthouse. Even if you don’t shine like before, we’re still here for you. There’s no way we’ll leave a bad day let you think that low of yourself.”

Rapunzel slowly let go of her hold upon Cassandra, who let her fingers draw last lines of caresses against her side. Cassandra was far from the best with words, but the few times she was, she always meant it.

Rapunzel looked at her, smiling fondly, with the dim light, and finally threw herself back at her. She hugged her again tightly, and Cassandra returned it gladly. Yet, instead of posing her head upon Cassandra’s shoulder like before, Raps put their foreheads one against each other, and she looked at her in the eyes, from so close they were both squinting. This odd look on their face made them laugh, a heartfelt laugh they both needed.

“Thank you,” murmured Rapunzel.

“I’ll be there for you, Raps. Whenever you need, I’ll be there,” assured Cassandra.

“But, who will be there for you then?”

“You,” answered Cassandra, cupping Rapunzel’s head in her hands.

She lifted her chin slowly, just enough for Rapunzel to end the movement and lock their lips for a short moment. It didn’t last long, and was even chaste, just a reassurance, knowing the other was there and still felt the same as before.

Only after a couple of minute still holding each other, Rapunzel let Cassandra out of her arms and let herself fall back on the bed.

“I think I’ll stay here for tonight. I… I don’t feel like going back outside with the others,” she said.

“I understand. I’ll get you dinner,” promised Cassandra, leaving a gentle kiss on her forehead before leaving the room.

She didn’t close the door completely, letting a little of light arrive to Rapunzel. She heard her mumble, sing-song the Sundrop incantation, now ineffective as magic, but still soothing as lullaby. It helped her feel at home. Home was all they both needed right now.

Outside, the others were still around the fire, talking. Thankfully, they were talking with voices near whispers, and the sound couldn’t reach the sleepyhead of the group. She needed her rest.

Cassandra sat down again on the bench of sort that was at the back of the caravan, and listened to what they were saying. First of all, Quirin had finally accepted that his kid go with them, for he knew Varian would certainly find a way to followed them nonetheless, he had done that already. Plus, the kid would be able to gather knowledge he would never have in Old Corona, like Xavier when he was not much older than Varian, and had followed Demanitus long ago.

They had crossed the results of the Zhan Tiri constellation on the map from Demanitus’ tomb with other maps. They now knew where they were headed.

A place far east, a lone mountain among canyons. The Spire. Thankfully, it wouldn’t put them off track too much. Only a week or two at most. And there, they would find answers to they many questions they had.

~ ~ ~

The kingdom of Corona was busy. Not busy as always, with markets, people walking in the streets, working. No. That day, they were busy planning a vengeance. Queen Arianna and king Frederic’s nineteenth weeding anniversary was coming in the next month, and a prank was their first gift this year.

“Go, your Majesty,” advised Matthews. “Take revenge. You’ve been wronged by this king Trevor. I know this grudge is personal. But I have checked. And it’s been quite some time Equis and Corona don’t get along. Two or three generations of their kings, if I recall correctly. Ever since their didn’t have any female heir, and can’t compete in the contest of the crowns, am I right?”

“Actually, mister Matthews, that’s it,” said Arianna, sitting by Frederic’s side.

“It seemed to me too. Because they don’t have any princess to join the competition, Equis have been put aside by the Seven Kingdoms alliance. Quite ironic, don’t you think? When I thought most of old kingdoms relied on sons to pass the crown,” lightly laughed Matthews. “All of that to say, your Majesty, you are most surely in your very right to take revenge. I’m not the best prankster, though I’m certain you can find yourself ideas to put king Trevor where he belongs.”

“That I’ll do, Matthews!” shouted Frederic, back in the game.

This very morning, he had been humiliated by gifts of stinking ostrich egg sized balls of seals shedding all over the city in the morning.

“I’ll need to take some time,” said the king. “I’ll find a plan! I swear, Trevor, I swear, you won’t see it coming!”

He left his throne in a hurry and the room in a minute. If he weren’t the king and if there hadn’t been a group of guards who sometimes liked to gossip in their free time, no doubt he would have ran, and not walked, into his office to scribble indecipherable plans against his frenemy in Equis.

As soon as the door closed again, Arianna was alone – except for the guards – with Matthews. She stood up, and invited him to walk with her in the wings of the castle.

“I’m surprised,” she said. “Nigel would never have told Fred to do such things. He would have advised to take things slowly, with diplomacy. But this feud is all but diplomatic. Speaking of Nigel, I hope he’ll well. Have you heard of him?”

“Not much, your Majesty,” admitted Matthews. “Though, now that you ask, I think I overheard the physician saying he was still unwell.”

“Oh. What a pity. My husband and he are close. There were friends, before Fred was crowned king. Nigel’s father was our late captain of the guard. Fred and he spent their childhoods together. But after the coronation, Nigel the good friend was nowhere to be seen, their was only Nigel the trustful adviser. I hope he’ll be well soon enough.”

“I’m sure he’ll be,” said Matthews.

Tromus wrote a mental note to be sure to make Nigel’s unknown illness lighten, as to not bring fear and regrettable decisions in the castle. But he couldn’t take any risk, so the man will have to stay away from his work.

“You’ve been here for a couple of weeks now, Matthews,” said Arianna. “I’ve been wondering, why us? If you wanted to help royals, you could have gone anywhere. Bayangor isn’t exactly next door.”

“That’s true, it was quite a journey. But I needed it. After the… It pains me to talk about it… the burning of the university, I left. The dean pleaded me to stay, but I couldn’t. She had found me, she could find someone to replace me. It was time for me to go, and the fire opened a door I crossed.”

“I see… And you studied and taught history, that’s what you told us?”

“I did, yes. Something the matter, your Majesty?”

“I’m not sure.”

She continued walking in the aisle. Tromus by her side slowed a bit his pace, only to put discreetly behind her back his hand, above the fabric of her dress. He didn’t touch her, that wouldn’t be well received, though, he gathered on his hand frail traces of magic around, just enough for him to use. All it would take was a seed of idea in her mind, and all she would know would be what he wanted her to know, she would never question him anymore, and his dark past would be safe. He lifted his arm, pretending shooing a fly away. There, the magic against her would do its work. He was a being of magic after all. It was almost too easy. When it was done, he retracted his arm to his side. She didn’t react, as if she hadn’t notice anything.

When they arrived at a corner, he bowed.

“It was pleasing talking with you, your Majesty,” he said, still bowing.

Arianna waited till he stood again before talking.

“I think there is so much more for us to talk about, mister Matthews. Questions. And affirmations too. Such as… your magic, it did nothing to me.”

Matthews rose up and stiffened, at a loss of words.

“You did magic on me, right?” asked Arianna, though it wasn’t really a question.

“I… It’s not what you think, your Majesty,” he tried to save his skin.

“I don’t care what the spell was supposed to do. But know that whatever you’ll try with such magic, it won’t work.”

“May I ask how? It never did that,” he said with a voice of genuine curiosity.

“Have you heard of what happened, the day I nearly died giving birth to my daughter?”

“I don’t recall. What happened?”

“I was saved by magic. Ever since, magic can’t harm me,” she said with a warning glare. “So, your magic can’t harm me either.”

“This is wonderful, your Majesty,” commented Matthews, truly stupefied. “I… Is there anything you want to know about magic? I could teach you what I know, I could help you understand what you have in you.”

“You’re not an historian,” she accused.

“I’m not,” he confessed, head low.

“You know nothing of Corona’s history.”

“I don’t.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m sure you don’t really want to know.”

“I want to know who I keep under my roof. If you don’t answer, you’ll sleep in the stables as of tonight.”

“Can we speak about this in private?”

“Here is perfect. Who are you, mister Matthews? Or should I even call you that?”

“You shouldn’t,” he admitted after a short pause.

He kept his head low, trying to tidy his thoughts as to what say first. Or what he should even say or keep hidden actually.

“So? I’m waiting,” said Arianna, which pulled him out of his thoughts.

Better go with the truth then, it would serve his ploy, whatever that might be. With the queen knowing he had lied to her, he wasn’t sure anymore what he had to do, who and what he should stand for. Now was the time to make the right choices.

“My real name Tromus, your Majesty.”

“Tromus…” she repeated, thoughtful.

“I… I better not keep you waiting with riddles. My master would love riddles, but now is not a time for riddles.”

“Your master? Every man and woman born on this land is free, Tromus, there is no master.”

“Born on this land, yes, that’s true. But I’m not from this land. I come from afar. Very far. Actually, not even from this world. I came here long ago, when an event in the cosmos opened a breach. I believe you call what came from it the Sundrop and Moonstone, if the names haven’t change since then.”

“They haven’t. The Sundrop, we know it was here in Corona… I don’t think I can trust enough, Tromus. Tell me more. Who is this master? What are you doing here now?”

“I came long ago with my master, Zhan Tiri.”

At the name, Arianna froze.

“Are you okay?” checked Tromus.

“This she-demon was your master?” Arianna hissed.

“She’d love to still be, but now I’m free. I understand that you’ve heard of her, and certainly of Demanitus too.”

“I have, yes. From your perspective, what part did he play in this story?”

“He was the human, the wise, the mentor. I respected him for that. But Zhan Tiri? She respects no one. I’m not even sure she respects herself. She dragged me and our acolyte through the breach caused by the Moonstone and Sundrop. Zhan Tiri wanted these powers. More than anything. Does she still wants them? That’s for sure.”

“She’s still alive? What we’re told is that she’s not a threat anymore.”

“I can but concur, yes. For she’s trapped in a, how Demanitus did that? I don’t know, but it’s some kind of pocket dimension, if you can imagine it. It is called the Lost Realm.”

“Frankly, you’d be speaking a dead language, it’d be same for me.”

“I see, your Majesty. Anyway, there was another event lately, I’m not sure what, but it opened a portal again, for a very short time, and I came through. Zhan Tiri tasked me to find a way to open the portal again so she could come back.”

“Is that what you’re here for?” asked Arianna.

She tool a step back, suddenly more suspicious than before.

“She’d love that, but… no,” realized Tromus with a heavy sigh, letting go a confession as heavy, if not heavier. “When we were studying with Demanitus, I liked the presence of Zhan Tiri back then. When I was on her team, I thought I was safe. But then came a time I realized I chose the wrong side. And all those too many years in the Lost Realm with Zhan Tiri only proved me I was wrong from the start to follow her. She was always different, even at the beginning, when I came to know her. She had always seemed out of any world.”

“Then what is your goal and how can the kingdom of Corona help you?”

“That, your Majesty, I wish I knew. There was a legend, a theory of sort, in the world I come from. That the Sundrop and Moonstone have to be reunited. That way, magic will flow after it, and most of magic will leave,” he explained, drawing in the air with his hand a curve going high to the sky.

“There was magic before the Sundrop and Moonstone,” reminded him Arianna.

“Indeed, but it’s like a maelstrom, that will drag you away, only that it’ll do that only to magic, if the legend is correct.”

“I still don’t get it. What would reuniting the Sundrop and Moonstone do to Zhan Tiri to help you?”

“If magic is mostly gone for a while, it’ll suck away the portal’s magic. And then, the portal will be permanently sealed. Demanitus might have been a wise soul, but if his portal were correct, even the magic shock few weeks ago couldn’t have reopened the portal at all. It’s still a bit open, though Zhan Tiri and her magic can’t go through. But I could. I am far from powerful as Zhan Tiri was. That’s the only reason I could go through. And I hoped that coming here, in the kingdom where the Sundrop is, I would find a solution, an answer to get to the Moonstone, and put an end to this once and for all.”

“The Sundrop isn’t here anymore,” told him Arianna with a low voice.

“I… I noticed that, before coming to the castle,” admitted Tromus. “I knew where the Flower was.”

“It was the Sundrop that healed me. It has passed to my daughter.”

“But, she’s long lost from what I’ve heard…”

“She is,” said Arianna, melancholic. “And I hope she’s fine.”

Tromus didn’t find words for her. She truly was missing her daughter, but something in the ways she talked and watched in the air hinted that she knew more than she would say.

“I suggest we close this conversation for now,” she finally decided. “Of course, you are to tell nothing of this to my husband. I’ll come to you whenever I need help concerning magic. Is that alright with you?”

“Of course, your Majesty. I’m glad you’re accepting my presence here, even knowing my former allegiance.”

“I’ve been told a problem with magic users is that restraints don’t do much,” she added. “So, obviously, if I have any doubt about your redemption, I’ll have your head taken off your body.”

He gulped silently, and put a sudden hand on his neck, knowing she was making a very serious promise.

“I accept your conditions. They are fair.”

“But I won’t do anything like this willingly. You say you want to help. Prove yourself worthy of my help.”

“I will,” he promised, his right fist hitting his chest.

Arianna bowed lightly her head, not much, as the queen, it wasn’t her part to do, and Tromus mirrored her, bowing lower. On this silent conclusion, they went separate ways in the corridor.


	6. A canyon is full of blind spots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Brotherhood shows up, and birds are useful…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the second part of the chapter, warning for use of a plant that can be seen as drug use (mandrake)

The old map Xavier had for decades told the team they would need about half a month to get to the point Demanitus showed on his own map, the Spire. Both maps were ancients, and some parts of them were missing, blank points where nothing was mapped, where all was unknown.

Cass and Owl would often scout ahead and bring all information possible on the area they were walking in. In the back room of the caravan, on the couches, Rapunzel with a paint brush in hand and a blank map on the table would draw the path they were taking with the best precision possible. One with the objective cartography, the other with the designs and composition, in no time they were able to map the areas around them, from towns to rivers, canyons to hills, even the animals and plants the path gave them.

Most of the time, Varian would help them to have a representation more close to reality, as vectors, mathematics and distances weren’t part of the little Gothel had taught them herself. And even though Xavier started to help them receive this scientific education they lacked while they were in Corona, in two months he didn’t have much time.

Crossing these new maps with the more ancient ones, they could adapt the road, and more than once, they took a longer road, so they could avoid difficult passes, and troublesome forests, or canyons too narrow for the rather large caravan to go through. Around one of these particular obstacles, which maps and road signs called Forest of No Return, they had the time to prepare another path, far from a shortcut in length, but in time, it sure was. The path the signs showed would have led them through a swamp and the forest itself. But by combining all maps’ information, they settled for a safer path around. After a day-long flight, Owl was able to confirm the position of the black rocks on the other side. So they took the mountains’ side and unmarked paths through the bushes on the hills above the deadly forest.

But that choice of road wasn’t one to please someone who was keeping an eye on them from the beginning. She had introduced herself to one of them, and for now, didn’t have to do it with the others. For now, they hadn’t needed her help. But she had the feeling they would soon. They were heading to the Spire. She didn’t know why exactly, though she had seen them at Demanitus’ tomb, and guessed the old man had hidden a clue there. She had seen Quirin too. And though she didn’t know what was told, she knew she had to follow them.

In time, she’ll reveal herself. As they had chosen another road than the Forest of No Return, she hadn’t needed to appear and help them. But they couldn’t anticipate everything on the path. There had to come a time when something unexpected would require exterior help. Maybe the knight would have to help fate first.

The area near the Spire was full of canyons. Some were wide, and easy to go through. Others were narrower, and the caravan couldn’t go there. They went slowly. One of them would scout ahead, and say if the road was clear and large enough for the carriage. The others, with the horses, would pull the caravan or walk by, or set camp and hunt dinner.

They were there for a couple of days now, and it felt like they hadn’t moved an inch. The stars above were telling them where they were, that was nearly the only way to know they were going in the right direction.

On the third day, they agreed to send someone climb the canyons, instead of walk on the path below, and tell what the view told them from up there. Cassandra, Rapunzel and Varian went. Rapunzel’s rendering of perspective, which she could seldom improve in the Tower, had seen itself better and better with each passing day. And to paint from the top of the canyon would help her art as well as the path of the whole team.

To help her get up there, Cassandra had everything under control. Rope, solid shoes with metallic crampons provided by Xavier – even if Rapunzel always refused to wear them so they stayed in her bag – and daggers to help them climb if the path was too narrow. Varian was supposed to stay with the caravan, but he followed them and if the kid was something, it was being fixated on what he was doing.

The kid had a whole bag of supplies to calculate the distances with whatever location they could see from up there. It would be useful, of course. If the heavy bag wasn’t trying to have them fall from the cliff many times.

After two long hours and many pauses, they manages to reach the summit of the cliff, even though more than once, the ropes were about to let go and fall, and the climbers with them. From up there, they could see far away, in all directions.

To the north, a shred of deep blue below the sky showed the sea, while to the south, there were mountains, after miles and miles of plains and canyons. And to the north-east, where they were headed, single spear of knowledge piercing the sky, rose the Spire’s peak.

With Owl and Cassandra’s reconnaissance, Varian’s calculi, and Rapunzel’s fast mapping, they were able to have a pretty good idea of the path to come. They would need once more to take the caravan on a road that could look like it was taking them away from their destination. But in the end, that would save them hours, if not days, and they wouldn’t need to move the heavy carriage through a too small road. If they kept a good pace, they could be at the Spire in about two days.

Owl came back from a last tour ahead, and hooted from Cassandra’s shoulder what he had seen.

“There are boulders and a small river,” translated Cassandra, and she saw Rapunzel taking notes to draw on the map. “Owl says there might be an underground river in the cliffs. We should be able to resupply in water there. Thanks, Owl.”

The usually nocturnal bird of prey hooted, before receiving a bit of ham as a treat. Cassandra looked ahead. The Spire was a high building on top of a high lonely mountain. How had it been built there? Certainly thanks to one of the many magical artifacts Xavier explained it contained.

A rumble from the west caught her attention. As she looked in that direction, Cassandra saw a cloud of dust rise from the canyon.

“Guys, we gotta go!”

She grabbed Rapunzel and Varian by their sleeves before they could even react.

She ran with them on the cliff, shouting to the caravan on the path below.

“Go! Start the caravan! Something big is coming!”

But from the little faces of Xavier and Eugene in the distance, they didn’t understand. Moving frantically her arms to warn them didn’t help either. Cassandra looked behind her again. The cloud of dust seemed to be gone.

But it was no false alert. The rumbling sound was louder and louder by the second. And Xavier seemed to finally have heard it, as the slash of the reins resonated in the hollow canyon. Something was coming, something big, to judge by the sound it made. Cassandra, Rapunzel and Varian kept running up on the cliff, safe from whatever was coming, but not safe from dead ends. The cliff came to a stop.

“To the left!” shouted Cassandra to the caravan that had arrived at a bifurcation.

Eugene heard her first, and took one rein to turn the carriage in a not so well maneuvered curve that could have sent them out of the road if not for Xavier’s reactivity to take the lead back.

The rumble was approaching, and fast. The trio on the cliff was facing a wide gap at least a dozen meters large, before the next cliff.

“Rapunzel!” shouted Varian like he always did when he had a sudden idea. “Your hair! If we could throw it on the other side, we could reach it!”

“We would be squashed on the cliff!” reminded Cassandra.

“You have a better idea?” asked her Rapunzel.

“I don’t. Knot your hair on the bolt, I’ll shoot it,” said Cassandra, preparing the crossbow she had on her back.

She had taken it by precaution. A weapon was never dead weight to Cassandra. Varian had took the spyglass in his bag, and looked on the other side of the gap.

“There,” he said, showing Cassandra where to aim, “there’s a crack in the stones. I’ll add one of my goo balls, and it will hold for sure!”

“Your goo ball?” repeated Cassandra, skeptical.

“It’s a compound that glues on everything,” proudly explained the alchemist.

“When did you even have the time to create something like that?”

“In Old Corona. We were infested by raccoon. Goo traps? No raccoon anymore.”

“Impressive,” congratulated him Rapunzel, “but are you sure it will be enough to hold us three? I know my hair can, but this goo is our only option to cross the divide.”

“Only one way to find out!” said Varian with his wide mad scientist smile.

He put a pink ball of goo on the tip of the bolt. Rapunzel had knotted her hair on the other extremity. Cassandra took the crossbow, nodded to them as a last agreement they’d be really doing this, and shot the bolt.

It flew all the way to the crack in the rocks. And when it hit the rocks with a thump, the goo came out of the ball and spread all around. It seemed to hold.

Varian, lighter of them three, went first, using the strong hair like a rope. His arms and legs crossed around it, he crawled facing the sky, until his head hit the rock on the other side. He had made it! Quickly, he climbed to the top of the cliff, as Cassandra was already following him as soon as he had set food on the rocks.

Rapunzel was last to go, swinging between the two high cliffs with way more velocity than she could ever reach between two parts of the Tower’s framework. Instinctively, she threw her legs forward, anticipating the impact on the rocks, but at mid-air, she felt herself stop. Her hair had been caught from behind. She looked up, and saw a hooked rope attached to her mane, from the side of the cliff she had just jumped from.

“Permission to come aboard?” asked the unknown person, not even waiting for an answer to let herself fall in the precipice.

She caught Rapunzel with one arm, holding on to both her rope and the hair with her other arm. Both reached the other side in no time. Cassandra helped Rapunzel climb, but she didn’t even looked at the other woman who had just popped out of nowhere.

Before she could ask anything, the rumble in the canyon was at its loudest. They all looked down, and saw the flow of a raging torrent run between the walls of limestone.

“Well, that is something,” said the newcomer, turning away toward the Spire.

“Who are you?” asked Cassandra, her hand on her crossbow, not letting her go away for nothing in the world.

“Who I am matters not. What I am part of matters most,” she answered.

She looked at them three, and her glare stopped on Varian.

“Hello Varian Quirinson. You’ve grown well.”

“You know me?” asked Varian, unable to think of something else to ask.

“From a long time ago. And you,” she said, facing Rapunzel, “Sundrop. I believe you’re headed to the Dark Kingdom. It will be a long path. Tortuous. Treacherous. You’ll need help. Consider my sword yours.”

“I don’t need anymore help than I already have,” said Rapunzel. “And Sundrop isn’t my name. I’m Rapunzel.”

“I don’t call people by their names. Doesn’t represent them. You’re Sundrop, she’s Short Hair, and he’s Goggles.”

“And you’re Two Faces,” said Cassandra, crossing her arms to prevent herself to run with her crossbow as sword.

The newcomer shrugged.

“If you want. Doesn’t matter. You’re going there?” she asked, pointing the Spire.

“Why do you want to know?” checked Rapunzel.

“You’re going to need the key to the Spire’s vault. The vault is at the top of the mountain. A day-long climb. Consider this a free advice.”

“But… we don’t need your advice,” insisted Rapunzel.

She had blinked for a millisecond, and when she opened them, the two-faced newcomer was nowhere to be seen.

“Err, guys, someone saw where she went?”

Neither Cassandra nor Varian had seen her leave.

“We better get back to the caravan. I don’t know what this whole stream down there was about, but I hope the others are safe,” said Cassandra, leading the way.

Rapunzel stayed behind.

“Varian,” she called, “my hair is still stuck.”

“Oh, yes, sorry, here’s the anti goo,” he excused himself, letting the antidote fall on the pink goo against the rocks.

As soon as the goo was gone, they rushed to get to Cassandra, who was ahead trying to see the caravan. It had to be there, somewhere. The water surging suddenly from nowhere couldn’t have drown them, there had to be wood, clothes carried away, something. Anything.

There, under a bush, they heard a cough. It was Xavier. Few meters away, Eugene was getting out of under a broken tree branch carried by the flow. The caravan was nowhere to be seen.

“Xavier!” called Cassandra, sliding down the cliff. “Are you okay? Did you see where the caravan went?”

The blacksmith fought against the branches ensnaring him, and finally, with water up to his knees, got up, a hand holding the back of his head.

“I don’t know what happened, the water came and the caravan was stuck in place. It must be behind. I hope the water didn’t do too much damages.”

“We all hope that,” supported Rapunzel, walking carefully with Varian toward Eugene to move the branches keeping him down.

“I sure hope my security system worked,” mumbled the kid under the weight of a rather large piece of wood.

“What do you mean, Varian?” asked Xavier.

“I put some of my bubble balls on the caravan before going on the cliff. You asked me to think of a security system for this canyon. So I did.”

“Bubble balls?” repeated the elder of the group, clearly no seeing what the youngest was talking about.

“Yeah, bubble balls. They hit something, puff, bubble all around.”

As if on cue, a shadow appeared upstream, large and bubble-like.

“Oh, right, bubble,” understood Xavier, voicing everyone’s thoughts.

The caravan was there, inside a large bubble of some compound Varian must have found one day during his experiences in Old Corona. They were all observing the imposing translucent structure of a material they couldn’t name.

The bubble reflected the sun behind it, and, for a very short instant, the blade slicing it from behind. It was the dark blade of the woman, from up there on the cliff. She was standing on a ledge of rocks, sword in hand, horses behind her. Agilely, she jumped down on the path, walking toward the group.

“I caught your horses,” she told them with a rather neutral voice, as if she wasn’t expecting any answer from them. “It’ll take you two days to reach the Spire. I might be of some help.”

“We don’t need your help,” told her Xavier.

“Don’t we?” checked Eugene. “We barely got out alive of the stream.”

Xavier took him and the others by the sleeves, so they could speak aside without the newcomer hearing anything.

“I’m met people who appears magically, with special abilities and all, in the past,” said Xavier. “Never ends well. Even if she’s human and wants to help us, someone who’s so helpful often wants compensation. And we have secrets we’d rather keep to ourselves.”

Eugene watched behind them at the warrior. There was something strangely familiar.

“Wait,” he realized, “that’s the crazy woman who asked me about my pendant two months ago. You’re right Xavier, we can’t trust her.”

“Plus there’s no way water could have come down so fast,” added Cassandra. “Owl would have seen it. She must be behind it.”

“Am I the only one who noticed the Brotherhood symbol on her hand?” asked Varian.

Xavier looked discreetly, as did each of them one after another. In the end, they failed to be discreet.

“She has one, indeed,” confirmed the blacksmith. “That’s another reason to keep this expedition only to ourselves. Your dad told us some people from the Brotherhood might want to stop us. Two-faced, saw Eugene’s pendant… He told us she was Adira, right? That we don’t know on which side she stands.”

“Oh, I know very well on which side she stands. We should trust her.”

Everyone jerked backward at the voice. She was just beside them, a grin on her two sided face.

“You know, you could just trust me and this journey will be easier for all of us.”

Xavier was the first to walk away, gesturing to the others to follow him to the caravan.

“If we need help,” he told her while he was helping Cassandra to harness the horses back, “we’ll follow the clues Demanitus set. Not some stranger in a canyon.”

“Very well,” she simply answered.

She jumped on the ledges of rocks like a cat in a tree, and in no time, she was up there, on the cliff, looking down on them all. The caravan wasn’t too much damaged. Reparations could wait. They set course at once.

But it wouldn’t be the last they see of her.

~ ~ ~

Vardaros once was a beautiful city, with flowers at the windows, cobblestones on the streets, children playing ans thieves thieving, bakers baking and deputies arresting.

It had changed some years ago, when the Baron arrived in town. Not only did he discredited the sheriff, captain Quaid, and forced him into self exile in the countryside, but he took over the city itself, assuming the role of leader, letting flowers decay from the windows, giving children blades instead of wooden horses, taking the cobblestones off the streets to build himself a palace worthy of a duke, encouraging thieves run away with their loot, using breads and pastries to smuggle to neighbor towns, and leaving the deputy office abandoned. And the people simply went on with it.

That said, the Baron wasn’t revered by all the people of Vardaros. There had been a man, not long ago, who had dared to wrong him and his daughter Stalyan. To find this man would be the test the Baron asked of Sugracha to stay in his army.

Good thing for her, she was a being of magic, ever more than the more powerful human sorcerer could be. He asked her to find someone, all she would need was a memory, a piece linking her to the one she had to target. Oh, what an easy job, when all low-level magic users could crawl to her feet and ask her how she was doing that, when none of them had the power nor the knowledge and even less the inborn capacity to use such magic. Let them crawl, let them beg, let them be miserable, while she would bring them together as one army to please her lord exiled away. Though, Sugracha wasn’t sure yet.

Her goal had always been to bring glory to Zhan Tiri, to help her achieve what none before had achieved. Become a demigoddess in their home-world wasn’t enough. They had to follow the Sundrop and Moonstone, when they had been captured into the maelstrom leading to this petty plane of existence.

But now, Zhan Tiri was away. She was dying. Alone in the Lost Realm. Her magic was fading there, absorbed by the absurdity of this plane. Neither Sugracha nor Tromus were as powerful as she was. Neither of them could save her. So, when a breach appeared, she sent them away, with only mission to find the Sundrop and Moonstone, to bring her back, to let her achieve her goal, so she could come back powerful, so she could get her hands on the Sundrop and Moonstone once and for all.

Now, Sugracha was alone too, in Vardaros. They had fallen together, with Tromus, but soon had been separated. Where was he now? Who knew, really? Even a powerful magic user fears heights. The fall could have killed him, for all Sugracha knew. Better use what she had now and fulfill her role, not mourn over a person that wasn’t even a loss to her.

The Baron had let her use a room in his wide mansion of his. She only had to use her magic once on him. Seemed like he preferred to have a mage under his roof than in town. It was all for the better.

Sugracha had been able to collect information on the man the Baron and his daughter were looking for. A thief, going by the name of Flynn Rider. Left a couple of months ago during a mission to steal the crown of the lost princess of Corona, disappeared into thin air, no trace, nothing to lead somewhere.

The crown was supposed to be his weeding gift to the Baron’s daughter, Stalyan. And now, neither thief nor crown could be found. The Baron cared little for the crown. It could be sold a fortune to the black market, full or in pieces. But in the end, Corona was known to not be kind with thieves, and if the royals had gotten the crown back, there was a little chance they would search for who commanded the caper. They would stop to who did it, too happy to give someone to Justice.

It had been more for the thrill of the chase than anything else, if the Baron dared accept to recognize it. But Flynn Rider himself, the Baron wanted to find him. To break him. No one disrespects the Baron and gets away with it.

He had first sent his twin nephews after him, they had been on the same mission, they must have seen where Rider had fled to. But the Stabbington went back to Vardaros empty-handed.

And now, it was Sugracha’s trial to find Flynn Rider and bring the Baron his revenge. And when he would have his revenge, she would have his army. And then, she would have access to all that could allow her to open the portal to the Lost Realm, and bring back Zhan Tiri to her former glory robbed from her by Demanitus. After all, even if the demon was weakened by her time in the Lost Realm, Sugracha knew where the Sundrop was.

“You mean this magical flower above the sea?” asked her Stalyan, casually leaning against the door to the made up laboratory Sugracha was working in.

As she often did, the mage had been mumbling her researches, thinking no one could hear her.

She turned around to face the Baron’s daughter.

“Have you heard of it?”

“Who hasn’t? That flower saved the queen years ago when she was about to give birth.”

“The Sundrop is gone?” realized Sugracha.

“Yeah. Why?”

“This is a catastrophe.”

“That’s no news, the baby was stolen right after her birth. Speak of a magical healing,” Stalyan commented, rolling her eyes. “Since then, every thief and little one-time criminal was hunted down to find her. That’s because of that we’re here in this wretched town today. My dad didn’t tell you?”

“He seemed to not have thought it was important,” said Sugracha, thoughtful. “I will need calm and tranquility to perform the spell to find your fiance. If you please, get out of this room.”

“Find him,” only ordered Stalyan before opening the door.

She left, and only Sugracha remained in the room. If the Sundrop was gone, then Zhan Tiri couldn’t be saved. She would have to find what remained of its magic before.

A murder of crows cawed outside. Sugracha went to the door leading to the balcony above the forest. This part of the mansion was calm, away from the city. There, there were only the trees, the animals. In a box near the door, she had put peanuts. She opened a handful, and threw them on the stones. One by one, the crows approached, curious, posed on the marble parapet. They moved their heads, inspecting in all angles possible this odd old human feeding them.

One finally went down on the floor, and walked to the peanuts. It ate one, then another, and followed the trail till Sugracha, who was still opening other. The crow cawed loudly.

“I know, I know, I’m going as fast as I can. Wish to help me, all-seeing bird?”

The crow lifted its head on the side to watch her with its one left eye, the other blind.

“It won’t be a problem,” said Sugracha, shrugging.

She threw all the peanuts on the floor, and stood up, went back inside, as the crow peeked the fruits. Soon, the others of the flock descended from the parapet as well.

From behind a window, Sugracha watched them. She had in her hands a mortar and a pestle, as she was mashing plants. But not any plant. She was mashing slices of mandrake roots, with liquor of eyebright. In the matter of few minutes, she was done. Outside, the crows hadn’t even finish the peanuts. Good thing.

Sugracha went back on the balcony, the mortar in hands. She sat cross-legged, picking up a peanut or two to propose them to the closest crows. The first to came earlier approached.

“I need a bird’s perceptive,” she told him, knowing, deep inside, the crow could understand her tone, if not the words themselves.

The crow approached even more, jumping on her knee. The animal was magnificent, deep black, with a strong beak and a fierce glare in his only eye. He cawed again, pointing the mortar with his beak.

Sugracha took between two fingers a bit of the mashed preparation. The crow didn’t budge. She put the compound on its head, going down on both his eyes, even the dead one. The mash covered his beak, his nose. The crow coughed as best as a bird could, and it went out of his nose.

“I’m sorry, feathery friend, I have to.”

Then, Sugracha took from her pocket a ruby. Stalyan had given it to her on her father’s orders. It was the Eye of Pincosta she had stolen with Flynn Rider long ago, it was what would help Sugracha find the man. She gave it to the crow, who firmly closed his claws around it. Now came the last step. She took some of the preparation and this time, she put it on her own eyes.

The crow flew away, the ruby with him. Good. Sooner he left, sooner he would find his prey. Sugracha was following his every movement through his own eye. Sat on the balcony, she extended her arms, and as wings, told the crow where to go.

The ruby told them to go east. They went east. Above mountains, above forest, above rivers and streams, above canyons. They both flew for days, only relying on the bugs and seeds and fruits and occasional rodents and fishes the crow found. The canyons were the end of the journey. That was there the ruby had guided them.

Sugracha told the crow to fly between the cliffs, to search for their runaway. He had to be there somewhere. Had to be.

Yet, it was not his presence that was sensed first. There was a strong magic in the canyon, a magic Sugracha knew, but it was a magic she had only known held in a flower. The Sundrop. She urged the crow forward, evading the boulders and the walls of limestone, rushing where the Sundrop’s magic emanated.

And when they arrived there, it was rather disappointing. A caravan. A caravan with people in it. At least, there was the man Stalyan and the Baron were after. But the Sundrop, for a moment, no trace of it. Until the trap on the roof of the caravan opened, and appeared a young woman with long golden hair. And then, the Sundrop’s magic was at its peak. Next to her, the fugitive of Vardaros appeared too, trying to talk to her.

Sugracha made the crow slow down and follow them, listening to them. At a moment, she saw who was riding. Xavier. It had been a while since she last saw him. Next to him, a kid and a young woman who strangely looked familiar were keeping track of the road on a map. People were talking above. The crow landed next to the blonde woman and Flynn Rider.

“What do you think you’re going to do, when we get to the Dark Kingdom?” asked the woman.

“First, I’ll see if we get there alive,” said Flynn, lying down his back on the caravan’s roof, hands under his head.

“I meant, if you really are this lost prince, do you think you’ll be ready?”

“Not at all,” he said with a laugh. “Would you?”

“Maybe. I don’t think I fully understand all that means, but, I know I’m the princess of Corona, but, what does it change for me? Will I ever be able to do as I want? To walk as I want? The little I saw in Corona was fascinating at first. But now that I’ve seen another part of the world, Corona scares me. When we’ll come back, I’ll need time. A lot of time.”

The crow saw her fold her legs to bring her knees to her chin, thoughtful. The bird took flight again, and went on the cliffs.

This aviary expedition was proven very useful. The fugitive was found, and so was the Sundrop. But then Sugracha realized something, in what they had said. They were heirs of kingdoms. On the road. Alone for miles except for the people in their group. Alone and away from both their kingdoms.

The sudden realization ceased the connection between the mage and the crow. The dried mud of the potion fell from the crow’s face, and it went away, back home, to the west. The mash fell from her face too, and she fell backward on the hard stone of the balcony.

But even though it hurt, she was successful, and this mattered most. In a hurry, she stood up with the help of her walking stick, and went to speak to the Baron. Only then, she would fully have his trust that no enchantment could fake. And he would be at her mercy.

When she left the room, she found Stalyan against the wall of the corridor.

“You’ve been there for days, you know,” she stated.

“I did what I needed to do,” croaked Sugracha, not minding her a glance.

She resumed her walk in the corridor.

“You know,” said Stalyan, “when you’re doing a spell, you speak a lot. So, that’s true? You’ve found Flynn and the lost princess of Corona? Nice. What are you going to tell my dad?”

“All he needs to know,” answered Sugracha, hoping to stop the conversation.

Yet, there was something she hadn’t thought of. The Baron was already there, leaving his study just meters away.

“Hey, dad,” called Stalyan, “your new protegee found my man. And there’s a little surprise too.”

“The lost princess of Corona is with Flynn Rider, Baron,” said Sugracha, smirking victoriously.

“The lost princess?” repeated the Baron. “What do you want me to do with her?”

“Ask for a ransom,” simply suggested Sugracha.

“A ransom,” repeated the Baron, stroking thoughtfully his beard. “No. Not a ransom. A reward. Once we have her, we can tell we found her. We can claim a reward worth a king’s fortune.”

“This is brilliant idea, Baron,” confirmed Sugracha.

“Dad, don’t you see something wrong with this? We’re notorious criminals. If king Frederic learns we claim to have found his daughter, he’ll think for sure we’re the one who kidnapped her in the first place. This is a stupid idea.”

“If you’re out of the game, that’s more for us, Stalyan.”

“I never said I was out.”

“Then are you standing with your father to find the lost princess and the money she’ll bring us?”

“I’m not.”

“Then leave! If you think we’d better stay silent when such richness lies in our grasp, you’re not meant to partake with us!”

The Baron closed his fist and threw it in the wall. No one wrongs the Baron. Not even his own daughter.

“Then don’t come looking for me to find her,” sharply said Stalyan, walking away in the corridor.

Once she was one in the mansion’s garden, she ran to the stables. She knew her dad was cupid, but this was going too far. Finding her fiance to make him pay for ditching her was one thing she’s gladly partake in. To risk having a whole kingdom’s army at their doors because they thought they had stolen their only heir years ago was something she’d rather watch from afar.

If her father was going after the lost princess and Flynn, Stalyan had to get there first. She had listened to the path miss Sugarby had followed, she knew where to go. Yet, if there were a group of people, she’d need more muscles to come with her. Good thing Vardaros was filled with that. A handful of coins or the promise of freedom would suffice to convince anyone in this town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adira's plan is still very foggy... Does she want to help? How? It'll be told in time...
> 
> About Sugracha’s potion and the warning beforehand: a bit of science mixed with magic…  
> Mandrake, one of the most notable “magical” plants, is on a scientific aspect a hallucinogenic and a hypnotic, to quote only two of its effects… hence our poor raven couldn’t do much against it.  
> Second, eyebright. According to Wikipedia, this plant was used when medicine still believed in the doctrine of signatures. Eyebright, or other plants from the Euphrasia family, were supposed to heal eyes. Hence that plant for the potion that is used to link her vision with the crow's.


	7. Secrets kept in darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *Checks a word’s etymology…* Ah ah! Gotcha… Today, the Spire!
> 
> Also, Calliope’s canon text was already perfect, I didn’t change much of it.
> 
> (okay, I know, the etymology depends of the meaning of the word... but still ^^)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for light PTSD

“This very old and precious artifact is the wand of Wundator. It holds no magical powers, but is one of the only remnants of this ancient period. Here, you have the cloak of flight which, as the name tells it, allows the bearer to fly. And there, you can read extracts of the Book of the Cursed, which was written by… You’re not listening to me, aren’t you?”

“Err, no, what you’re saying is very, very, so very interesting,” said Rapunzel with a very, very, so very forced smile.

“We’re looking for something that could be linked to Demanitus,” repeated Xavier for at least the fifth time since they arrived at the Spire.

“Then I suppose what you seek is the key of Shumpolaar. Demanitus translated the notice, which was written in the now dead language of this lost civilization.”

“No, it must be something else,” said Xavier. “He left us a map, with a schematic showing Zhan Tiri. It must be connected to her.”

The Keeper of the Spire seemed pensive.

“Then I only see one thing for you. This statue of Zhan Tiri had been made after the vision a shepherd had about two centuries ago. It was sculpted in a volcanic rock and…”

“It’s not that,” said Xavier, crossing his arms.

“You can’t say it’s not that,” retorted Calliope, keeper of the Spire, “I haven’t finished. As I was saying…”

“It’s not that!” exploded Cassandra. “Look at our map and tell us if there’s anything _useful_ you can tell us!”

“Very well, I see mom is a little stressed. You should take some tea, it helps.”

“Mom!?” shouted Cassandra, on the verge of throttling their host, “I’m only twenty-two!”

“I saw the crows feet, I just assumed. At least, you’re not as old as grandpa there,” said the keeper while walking away in the large room filled with magical artifacts.

“… You’re not reacting, Xavier?” checked Eugene in a half-whisper to the elder of the group.

“Well, I’m several times older than all of you as one, so, can’t say she’s wrong on this.”

“I know, right,” bragged Calliope, “I’m never wrong.”

“Only for the many hours you’re killed our ears with nonsense,” muttered Varian.

“I heard that!” said Calliope. “What you’re looking for must be in the Spire’s vault.”

“Great!” said Rapunzel, trying to sound positive after losing precious hours of time with useless descriptions. “So… where is this Spire?”

“No, it’s Spire.”

“Spire?”

“Not, Spire. /spaɪə/. Repeat after me. /spaɪə/. It’s from Latin, spira. You hear the difference?”

“Err… /spaɪə/?”

“Voilà!”

“Spire does not only come from Latin,” corrected Xavier. “No, the word comes from Spier, it’s German.”

“Oh, and so what, mister knows-it-all?”

“Well, we’re losing our time. Let’s just go to the Spire, and I don’t care if I pronounce well or not, and we’ll be on our way.”

“Oh, that’s so bad, it’s a day-long climb. We’ll go tomorrow. We could have gone today, if we had left hours ago. Well then folks, bonsoir!”

“What?” said Eugene, at a loss of words.

“It’s French, means I’m off to bed. Oh, and, this is not an hotel, so you’re welcome to leave this room.”

They didn’t have time to realize what happened, and as soon as the sound of the door beings closed was heard, the team was already outside on the doorstep. Under a sudden downpour.

“Oh, she’s annoying!” complained Varian. “And I’m not used to say that of people I don’t know. Not that I know a lot of people anyway,” he commented under his breath.

“She’s not annoying, just different,” tried Rapunzel, “we all are.”

“Blondie, she’s annoying,” said Eugene.

“Never thought I’d ever say that, but he’s right,” confirmed Cassandra.

“I only see one thing to do,” said Xavier. “And good thing that we’re not in town or we’d have the guards. Eugene, go steal the key to the Spire’s vault, we’re going tonight. Cassandra, tell Owl to climb and tell us if the road is clear. We have to be careful, we’ll climb at night, and every climb on a mountain can be perilous.”

“We could just wait till the morning,” reminded Rapunzel.

“And listening to Calliope all day? I’m sorry, but even with my hunger for legends, she’s annoying,” said Xavier.

They heard the flapping of Owl’s wings as the nocturnal bird of prey flew up to the mountain. Eugene ran back to the caravan they had to leave on the road to the Keeper’s home. He went back half an hour after with Xavier’s box of tools. The key to the Spire was on the keyring the Keeper kept with her, so it was most surely in her room.

Even with the rain, the night was warm, she had left the window half open and from it came snores. Rapunzel threw her hair above the window, and it found the hook above it, and fell back on the dust of the path.

“You’re sure it won’t hurt?” checked Eugene.

“I’ve lifted heavier, it’ll be okay,” she reassured him.

He took the hair in his fist, evaluating how to climb on it, and jumped, while Rapunzel lifted him to the window. On the ground, Cassandra walked to her, arms crossed, but a slight smile on her face.

“So… You’ve lifted heavier, hey?”

“Your mother often came with groceries. And you brought me an entire deer once,” reminded her Rapunzel with a grin.

“Right, none taken then,” she replied with a smirk.

They watched Eugene as he went up to the window, resting a hand on the windowsill. He looked down, unfazed by the height, and sat there, taking a short pause. Though his cough had disappeared on its own few days ago, it left him with a sore feeling in his throat and the altitude didn’t help.

The window’s leaf was open, and inside the bedroom, there on the nightstand, there is way, the keyring with several metal keys on it. Very carefully on the creaking parquet, Eugene set his foot on the floor and tiptoed till the nightstand, like a child at night nearly caught stealing sweets. He extended his arm, his hand, his fingers, reaching for it… Calliope moved in her sleep. How was she asleep so fast after leaving them earlier? Must have been a side effect of living in such a place, even her was bored by her own annoyance.

Still as a statue, Eugene didn’t moved an inch, until he was sure he could breath again. There, it seemed the coast was clear. The keys rang gently together as he caught the whole thing, nearly ringing a bit too loud, yet, the Keeper didn’t stir, so he assumed he was safe. Walking backward silently, he was stopped by the feeling of something pointy against his back.

That couldn’t be good. In a reflex, Eugene threw his arms above his head, the keyring still in hand, waiting for anyone who caught him to make their move.

Yet, nothing happened. There was no noise, no sound, he was alone. Turning around slowly, his fear was only caused by a coat stand. He cursed under his breath, and walked back to the window. The moon outside was hidden behind a curtain of clouds, yet, in the faint light of the night and torches his team had, he could see the glimmer of Rapunzel’s hair dancing on the window’s hook.

He sat again on the windowsill, catching her hair and pulling once, to be sure she was ready. She pulled twice, and he let himself fall on the ground, stopping only a meter above the path, before jumping agilely.

“Miladies, here are you keys,” he said, bowing sweepingly.

“Thank you,” said Rapunzel, taking the keys from his extended hand. “Cass, is Owl back?”

“Not yet. Xavier, do we start climbing?”

A loud growl came from the top of the mountain, and a freezing shiver shook everyone down to their spines. Even Calliope safe in her bed heard the lugubrious sound. Owl arrived in a hurry right after that bad omen, and landed on Cassandra’s raised arm. He hooted quickly.

“There’s a raging beast up there,” she explained, confirming what the growl was.

“A big one?” asked Xavier.

“Owl didn’t see clearly. It was fast. But big, that’s sure.”

“Raccoon sized?” guessed Varian.

Owl hooted and shook his head.

“Bigger,” Cassandra translated.

“Bear sized?” supposed Eugene.

Owl shook his head again.

“Even bigger… Xavier, what do we do?”

“If there’s something up there, I fear we’ll need to wait until morning after all. We can’t risk finding the beast and ending as its dinner. We’ll camp here for the night.”

They moved to the doorstep, glued together on the little patch of polished stones. And yet, not everyone was at the door.

Rapunzel was still under the rain, under the window, her hair still on the hook, like a memory fished and brought out in the open as a nightmare. She knew what it looked like, her hair, a tower, a hook, a window… Yet, something wasn’t quite right. The tower wasn’t the right one, this one was shorter. Wider too… Or was it?

“Raps?”

She heard Cassandra call for her, but it was faraway, dreamlike.

Was she dreaming? Sleeping? Surely, Rapunzel would open her eyes and wake up in the Tower, and Mother would open the door, ask her how the night was. Then Mother would go in town for a while, Cassandra would come and they would speak of everything and nothing, cuddle together on the couch or her bed, reading stories or eating some game they would have cooked together. That was what would happen, wasn’t it?

“Raps?!” Cassandra’s voice was clearer this time, closer, with pinch of fear.

Why was she afraid? She couldn’t be afraid of the one she told she loved, couldn’t she? She had told Rapunzel she loved her, when… when they were out of the Tower, before going to Corona. No, that couldn’t be, she was dreaming, she was still in the Tower. If not, where was she?

Firm hands shook her shoulders, and her hands fell from her hair she was still holding.

“Snap out of it, Raps!” shouted Cassandra’s worried voice.

There she was, holding Rapunzel by her shoulders, her mouth half opened and the look in her eyes as if something terrible had just happened.

“What… what happened?” asked Rapunzel, her head all blurry, her breath short.

“You froze, Raps, I don’t know, how do you feel? Are you okay?”

“I…” she shook her head and brought a hand to her hot forehead. “Where are we?”

“At the Spire…? Raps, if you think you should go back to the caravan, we go, we can let the boys handle whatever is up there.”

Rapunzel looked up to the mountain. Yes, she remembered, they were on the road, going to the Dark Kingdom, to the Moonstone, and they had a piece of scroll Quirin had given them, they were going to the Spire because Demanitus pointed them this place and… yes, now they were there, together.

The door of the tower opened, and behind it was a frightened Calliope.

“You heard the Kurloc too? Enter!”

“The Kurloc?” asked Xavier. “That’s a legend.”

“That’s no legend, you heard it, grandpa! Come on in, all of you. And you,” she said to Eugene, “give me back my keys.”

She didn’t even waited for him to hand back the keys. Like a predator seeing a prey, she snatched the keys out of his hand, in a jump so on purpose it made it comical.

When Rapunzel and Cassandra arrived inside the tower once again, the others had started to pass the time, looking at the many artifacts this time without the keeper giving each thing its entire notice. Thankfully, she had chosen to get back in her room. Which proved rather calming. In this museum of sort, each and every thing could hold grand power, grand richness, whether in knowledge, in magic, or for some, even in gold.

The one whose attention was particularly running all over the place was Varian. A second, he was there, the next he was meters away looking at something else, and the next again, he was back to another item. He couldn’t stop moving, observing and thinking about what each and every artifacts could do, could possibly grant or doom their holders with.

He only stopped in front of a surprisingly blank wall, where some room had surely been left to welcome new artifacts over the years. Yet, it wasn’t entirely blank. There was a faint shallow form under the paint. He looked at it, tilting his head as he often did when having an idea, then went back scanning the rest of the room. At mid-way with Xavier, he stopped right on his track, turning around with a raised finger, as though he asked for silence that was already there, and walked back to the wall. He didn’t blink once.

Back at the wall, he simply put his finger on the small depression in the paint, and pressed. The paint gave way, and under it appeared a hole, a keyhole to be precise, right there in the middle of the wall.

The others, except Calliope who wasn’t there anymore, had kept an eye on him, and when they saw his discovery, they went to him.

“Err, why would anyone put a keyhole in a wall?” asked Eugene.

“Because there’s a door,” said Varian, pointing out the obvious.

“And if there’s a closed door,” said Cassandra, “we need someone to open it.”

“And there I thought you never wanted to trust me,” taunted her Eugene.

“I’d try to pick the lock with your bones, but it wouldn’t as efficient,” she simply reminded.

“Please, stop bickering, you’ll wake Calliope,” said Rapunzel, putting a gentle hand on their shoulders.

“Right, I’ll do it,” finally accepted Eugene.

He looked at the keyhole on the wall, eyed through it, but saw nothing. Because of dirt, because the other side wasn’t light, that he couldn’t tell. Fidgeting with his thieving tools, he managed to get a click or two, but without handle, it was difficult to try to open the door. Until a click he knew was heard. Wherever that door would lead them to, its lock was open.

One by one, they put their hands flat on the wall, and pushed as though one giant hand was opening the invisible door. It creaked, hinged appeared under the paint on the side behind shelves and paintings, and on the other side was revealed what was hidden. The door wasn’t opening with two leaves separated in the middle. It was one large wooden door under the thick paints, only one leaf, spinning around a central axis. And in a deep shuffling sound, the door turned a half-circle around the axis, letting the team on the other side, dark and cold, like a cave to which an opening would have been added from or to the Spire’s tower.

As they turned, and turned the door to make sure the mechanism worked, it closed again, reversed from how it was before, and they were on the other side. There was no light, no wind, nothing but the tickle of dust in the air. A light appeared. It was coming from one of Varian’s test tube filled with a compound that became luminescent when shaken.

With it, they saw the room, strangely wide. Torches were on the walls, filled with dust and spider’s webs. There, where a second ago there was still a shadow, few steps appeared. A staircase was climbing. So they climbed.

How long did it take to climb? Shorter than they would have said if they could see the dark of night outside. There was no opening, no carved window in the rock, they were in a conduct opened long ago, climbing up there to the peak, to the Spire’s vault itself.

_If you read this, then hope to never find me. If you read this, hope you don’t even know who I am. But if you read this, you certainly already know who I am. You are doomed. I came here, to this mountain, lone mountain among miles and miles of canyons, because it was safe. Safe from what, would you ask me? Safe from myself, safe from my soul. Safe from unknown powers consuming me days after days._

They achieved the climb after hours, walking steps after steps. In the end, they were all merely up, only the cold and hard walls against their back or arms caught them from falling flat on the ground as equally hard and cold. They had done it. They were in the Spire’s vault. The secret passage so secret even the keeper didn’t know of it had led them to the vault.

_If you’re there, don’t think it’s luck. It’s never luck. Cosmic beings share a connection. When a part of one is close, the other and its friends will always find a way hidden to all who are not them. Always. Why didn’t I, then? I could have found my twin, could’ve released the evil from my kingdom. But I fell before I could do anything. The Moonstone knows. It’s searching. It will find._

When they had found their breathes again, they walked around the high halls. Varian was the first to search through the area, looking at every artifact, keeping himself with great difficulties to touch and try everything and unleash whatever magic they held.

At the center of this high, very high tower one couldn’t even see the roof of, stood a large column as high as the vault itself. The kid climbed the stairs, way more energetic to climb a marathon in the middle of the night than the others still on the ground.

By the second hidden door they came from, Cassandra, Eugene and Rapunzel had fallen on the ground, sat, while Xavier did his best to rest back against the rocks. There, the stones were dark, dusty. Only a patch of clearer material stuck on the inside of the cavern, on the wood of the door, was noticeable.

Having seemingly rested enough in the few minutes spend sat, Cassandra went to the light patch, and looked at it. It wasn’t stone, it looked like a folder, a leather folder, that had been attached to the stones long ago, for someone to see. And from the dust that covered it, and the inability from the Keeper to lead them through the cavern, they were the first ones for years if not decades to enter the vault from this tunnel and find this leather folder.

Cassandra took it, nearly waiting for it to crumble in her hands, yet, it stayed perfectly shaped, as though it had been stored there a couple of minutes ago. Inside, there was a piece of leather, on which someone had written.

_You’ve come from a long way, if you’re reading this. Do you know what’s waiting for you in the Spire? Few know. Let me help you. If you’ve come this far, you’ve come for the Moonstone. It isn’t there. It is safe, protecting itself. I know. I still bear the brunt of its power. It is part Moonstone, part myself. There is something else there too. Something I wrote with a fellow discoverer. A scroll, torn by rage. It’s on the column. Seventh row, next to a box. Take both. In time, you’ll find the other pieces. Maybe you already have them all. Pray to never find me. The box. No, leave it. It would doom you._

The text ended there. On the back on the leather page, Cassandra saw a too well-known seal.

“The Brotherhood,” she muttered, before showing it to Xavier by her side.

“Indeed,” he said, “though this seal looks ancient. Varian!” he called in the room, “can you find a piece of scroll and a box next to it? Seventh row!”

“A scroll and a box? I have them!” shouted the kid while running down the stairs.

By whatever miracle, he didn’t fall and when he jumped from a several steps height, and landed on the floor like a bird on a branch.

“There, the scroll must be inside it,” he said, showing a wooden cylinder, “it looks like the one my dad had. And the box was just beside it.”

He showed them the items, the cylinder in one hand, the box in the other. Xavier took the box, inspecting it. The lock was open. Surprising, yet not that much. The box itself was, if Varian hadn’t unlocked it in no time, supposed to be safely stored in its niche in the column.

He hadn’t yet half-opened the box entirely that a glow came from inside. A deep blue glow, deep as a night’s sky, coming from a half-closed box. He closed it right away. Yet, even from inside the closed box, firmaments of blue light tried to escape, as such a trapped spider longing to leave and take revenge on those who captured it.

In response to the blue light, a yellow glow started to shine behind Xavier. He didn’t see it immediately. But the gasps behind him told him to turn around. Rapunzel’s hair was shining, like it used to do, when she was singing. Yet, there was no song to fill the air. Her hair floated, leaving the braid she had used to wear for weeks now, after eighteen years with her hair free. Tufts held together by invisible strings moved, swam toward the box, their extremities slowly darkening as they approached, closer and closer.

Everyone had their eyes on her, and on her somewhat conscious hair.

“Xavier,” she asked, “can you open the box again?”

“Are you sure?”

“I feel like it’s calling me… I’m not sure what it will do, but I’m sure I have to do it… I have to know… if my hair still has its magic. Please. Before it does it on its own.”

Xavier’s glance went from Rapunzel to the box, and then Rapunzel once again. He sighed, unable to decide what option would be the best for all of them. Her eyes were filled with hope. Hope that what had defined her all those too many years away was still there, in her, that she still indeed had her magic. She was looking for an affirmation better than a vague hypothesis. It wasn’t fear tough. It really was hope.

Slowly, as though he was exposing to bright sunlight a nocturnal animal, he opened the box. Rapunzel’s hair approached, as slowly as before, an eel swimming toward a prey, a glowing fish there, right there, right ready to be taken. The blue glow coming from the box, from the stone inside of it, pulsed, like a heartbeat, keeping it alive. Without being commanded in any other way than the power it contained, the hair came always closer and closer to the stone, nearly brushing it, and it did.

A single hair touched the stone.

And the glow went away.

Then, a pulsing black light, coming from Rapunzel, like a signal, ran through her seventy feet of hair and spilled on the floor, and into the stone. Surprised by its suddenness, Xavier let the box go, and it fell on the floor.

Darkness filled the entire vault. When light came back, it came back as an eerie silhouette, deep dark blue coming from the stone in the wide open and now broken box. Like smoke, like fog warmed by spring’s sun, it was lifted high. And as it grew, it condensed and took human form, very lightly. A spear of glowing fog pierced the darkness, and light came back, from the door burst open of the vault.

The dark fog went down to the floor. It was human looking, a sinister silhouette hidden in a large cloak down to its feet, a hood falling like frozen tears before their face. The lich-like person lifted their arms, and moved their hands, and fingers, in an intricated dance, flowing like a river too long held behind a dam.

“They’re signing!” understood Xavier. “They’re communicating! Quick, hand me a paper!”

Rapunzel and Varian at once held him paper and pen. They were the only one in the team to always have some on them.

On the paper, Xavier wrote. His first sentence was: “ _Who are you?_ ”

If a ghost could facepalm, then this one did. They shook their head, and pointed with a foggy skeletal hand the leather letter Cassandra had found.

“You’re the person who wrote this?” she asked.

The ghost nodded.

“You said we were doomed if we were to find you,” she said.

The ghost shrugged. It was too late now.

“I have so many questions,” said Rapunzel, stamping energetically with impatience.

The ghost took a frightened step back, phasing through Eugene who happened to have moved behind him.

“The name is Ensis Wiseblade,” said Eugene, totally struck in place. “And I’m not walking in this again to see his mind.”

“You saw his mind?” repeated Rapunzel, aghast.

“A portion only. He’s mute. And partly deaf. Soldier of didn’t see where… Nope, ghost, not walking in again,” he said when Ensis’ incorporeal body approached him.

Ensis drew his blade, a long claymore with smoking dark plume-like volutes. He sliced the air, and through Eugene’s head.

“Dammit! Okay, you won,” he admitted his defeat with a loud grumble. “He founded the Brotherhood. Met Demanitus. Wrote the scroll your father had, kiddo. Same goes for the other scroll in this cylinder,” he explained to Varian, showing the wooden cylinder in his hand. “And, oh tell me this is a joke! This stone holds part of the guy’s soul, and can, what the heck? Control the Brotherhood members? Because it possesses part of the Moonstone’s powers? If I could choose I one thing I’d like to erase from my mind, it’s your whole life story, buddy!”

“Let me get this clear,” said Cassandra, “when this Ensis wrote we were doomed, it’s because our only way to know who he was is through Eugene. Makes sense.”

A spasm shook Ensis’ chest. It wasn’t pain. It was a laugh, a heartfelt laugh that echoed clearly in the walls of the Spire’s vault, like a crystal requiem. Yet, he stopped and adopted a more serious stance, shaking his head negatively. He signed again. And Xavier wrote again: “ _Your sign language is an old one. We don’t know it_ ,” he wrote.

Reading this, the ghost seemed genuinely saddened. He brought a hand to the paper, and burned letters. “ _Time is fading. Enemies are behind you. Threats before you._ _You have Sundrop. I have Moonstone. Let me help._ ”

“You could just possess one of us, and we’ll know what you want us to know,” suggested Cassandra. “And I just happen to know who to not-ask for that,” she precised looking at Eugene.

Ensis’ ghost glare went from her to Eugene. He shook his head, and went back to the paper Xavier handed them.

“ _Can phase and show_ _part of mind_ _._ _Can’t possess. Not a ghost. Not dead. Moonstone keeps me alive, can’t die, but not alive._ ”

As soon as Xavier finished reading the sentence aloud, a shiver shook them all. If he weren’t alive nor dead, what, and who was Ensis Wiseblade?

~ ~ ~

In a faraway place, a being dissociated from her home was agonizing. A hundred eyed monster passed by, and she caught it in a hand with flesh so thin it looked skeletal, a hand extended beyond normality by dreams. There was a time she wouldn’t even have needed to hunt, when magic was her only subsistence. When it was the only subsistence of what she used to carry day and night with her.

But now, now, who knew when now was? Now, magic left her as she had to spend her time in this place, rotting in this prison that sucked magic from her as time went by.

She had sent her allies. They had to help her from far away. They had to. She couldn’t end there. She wouldn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know this moment when you create an OC, you got them a good name, a good background, a cool weapon and all… But the moment you write their first appearance, you don’t know yet what they will do in the plot? Well… meet Ensis Wiseblade ^^’  
> About his appearance, imagine a Nazgul. About his personality and who he is, more will be told later 👀


	8. Allies in odd places and the weight of secrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter, yet not the last, without the caravan team… We leave Vardaros and go back to an old building in Corona…
> 
> Also, let’s retcon canon's magic! ^^
> 
> Warning for wound, light torture. I guess. It's literally one sentence long.  
> I don't recall if I said it in early chapters, but sometimes, there will be warnings that will clearly be in a "better safe than sorry" logic, so here it is.

A metal plate clang on the stone floor, behind the bars. It contained stew, or whatever prisoners could get. The man behind the bars was speaking to his cellmate, so caught in the discussion he didn’t notice right away the plate on the floor. A shadow stopped the conversation, as someone walked and stood before the light.

“Hey, Strongbow,” called a voice he knew too well. “I need you.”

“I won’t take you to Rider,” replied right away Strongbow. “I don’t even know where he’s gone. He left me behind. For you!”

“I know. And I know where he is,” said Stalyan.

She made the keys ring against the cell’s bars, and leaned against them, taunting.

“Sure, if you don’t want to get out of there, I could still let me dad find something to do with you. You know, he told me he’d love to check if that spider of his still has venom. With your corpulence, he told me you’d be a great lab rat. His words. Not mine.”

Strongbow gulped.

“I hate spiders,” he said, frightened, then, skeptical: “What’s the deal? You’re not working with your dad anymore?”

“Nope. Seems like his new protegee found the lost princess of Corona. He wants the reward, but he’d get the whole army before he could count a single coin. You’re coming or not?”

“I’m in.”

“Good,” she said, opening the cell.

“Well, Oldie, it was nice meeting you,” he said, turning to his cellmate. “You’re staying there?”

“It’s not like I could get a warmer home,” replied Oldie with a shrug. “See you later, partner!”

Strongbow followed Stalyan out of the prison of Vardaros, in one of the filthiest streets of the filthy town. She had brought two horses there, chained tightly to the house next to the prison. And a group of thugs was already trying to saw the chains.

Stalyan made her dagger screech against the doorknocker of the prison. The thugs looked up, and recognizing the Baron’s daughter, fled at once. The news of her change of allegiance hadn’t yet been in town. She was still the Baron’s daughter. And messing with the Baron’s family meant messing with the Baron himself.

Stalyan and Strongbow took the horses and left town, riding to the plain above.

“I prepared a route. Rider is going east, and so is the princess. The mage my dad trusts so much,” she said rolling her eyes, “said they were together with other people. She seemed to recognize them, but I don’t know them. They might be trouble.”

“So, what’s the plan?”

“We find ourselves allies, and we find them both.”

“You’ve thought of allies?”

“I have an idea or two, Lance. There’s a pub ahead. We go, find someone who has an interest in either our targets, and go. There’s no need to let the sound of discord announce us.”

She rode ahead, and he followed. The wind blew their capes behind them, as they passed through forest, plains and country. A couple of minutes out of a town, there it was, the pub. They tied the horses to a tree nearby, enough away from the pub to no be visible to potential thieves.

Stalyan stepped inside first. The place was dark inside, there were only few windows, not enough to light and see far. She looked around, searching for someone that wouldn’t be there out of total coincidence after all. She found her. Sitting by the bar, a pint of beer in her hands. Stalyan elbowed Lance, showing him the ally targeted. He didn’t recognize her. So Stalyan rolled her eyes once more and walked to the bar.

“Hey, lady Caine, right?”

“I suppose. Who are you? A fan?” replied the woman with a skull and roses tattooed on her arm, sipping her beer.

“I’m Stalyan. You’ve certainly heard of me.”

“Stalyan… Let me think. Ah, yes, the Baron’s daughter, right?”

Stalyan sighed.

“I’m defined by more than just being my father’s daughter, but yes.”

“The thief who stole the Eye of Pincosta.”

“That’s more like it,” thanked Stalyan.

She gestured to the barkeep for a pint of her own, and for Lance too, who sat next to her.

“I’m told you hold a serious grudge against a certain someone…”

“Didn’t know my wish for vengeance was that known. We could make a good team against Corona, you and I.”

“That’s not going to happen,” said Stalyan. “I have a better idea. That _someone_ is the lost princess of Corona, right? Who because of her disappearance caused you to lose your father? I can help you right the wrongs.”

“How?” asked lady Caine, interested.

“Join us. I know where she is.”

A chair squeaked away in the tavern as a man left his table. Lance’s glance followed him, trying to find something to pass time other than listening to Stalyan bargaining. The man, tall, who bear a short beard and had his hair tied in a man-bun, was walking out of the place, down the path, and, as soon as he thought he was out of sight, ran to where the horses were.

“The horses!” shouted Lance, running after him.

It took a second to Stalyan and lady Caine to follow him, but soon, all three of them were after the thief. He had the time to unchain one horse. Stalyan took the second one and set chase on him. She drew her dagger from her belt, and threw it. It missed, but not that much. The man fell, his arm wounded.

She dismounted her horse while it trotted, and arrived near her victim, catching the dagger fallen on the dusty ground.

“Let me be clear, you! Try that again, and I won’t miss.”

She took him by the back of his collar and made him stand up, as Lance who had arrived behind caught him.

“Damn, you’re not kidding with those weapons,” muttered the runaway.

“Do I look like I’m kidding on anything?” retorted Stalyan.

“Now my turn,” said lady Caine, cracking her knuckles. “Why did you run? We could use an informer.”

“Pff, as if you’d get me to tell anything!”

“I know a perfect way to make people talk,” mused lady Caine.

She took her own dagger, and ran the tip of its blade along his arm. When it reached the wound, the man winced with pain.

“Right, I’ll talk, I’ll talk! Heard you speak about the lost princess. You’re after her? I want her dead. And her whole family too! Long live Saporia!”

As soon as he finished his motto, Lance headbutted him. The ladies looked surprised, even though the silence was pleasant.

“Reflex,” simply explained Lance. “Can’t get along with those Separatists guys.”

“We should leave him at the tavern,” said lady Caine.

“He wants our prize dead. If we want the reward before my dad does, we need the princess alive.”

“Wait, I thought you told me your father’s idea was wrong, and now you want to do the same,” noticed Lance.

“Oh, but I do want the reward for the lost princess. I just want it without the whole army at my doorstep. You’re in?”

“As long as I find my pal, I’m in.”

“Yeah, you’re right, Lance, let’s not forget our common friend,” Stalyan confirmed with a grin.

“Will I get my revenge on the princess herself?” checked lady Caine.

“First, you’ll have to remind us why the princess wronged you,” said Stalyan. “The policy that captured your dad was the king’s. She was a baby when she disappeared. Want to blame someone? Blame the one who captured the princess. But I don’t know who that is.”

“I’ll take as a yes. I’m in.”

“So… What do we do with the guy?” asked Lance, still holding the unconscious Separatist of Saporia.

“We keep him. Hostage,” said Stalyan. “We can’t risk him and his clique to get ahead of us.”

“Already keeping hostages?” mused lady Caine. “This is gonna be fun. I’m so definitely in.”

They went to the horses, who were nearby. Lady Caine whistled to her own still at the tavern, and it arrived on a gentle trot. Lance tied up the hostage, and put him behind him on his horse’s back. And on the road they went once more. This time, they went to the east, and nothing could stop them until they found their targets.

Away in the woods, they were watched. Two little pairs of eyes saw them flee. A raven arrived on a branch nearby. One of the little people tried to shoo it away, yet the black bird stayed, and cawed. _I see you_ , it said. The other little person grabbed the first one’s sleeve and held it close, scared.

“It’s just a bird, Catalina, it can’t hurt us,” said the first one, getting her sleeve back.

The other one didn’t answer, and looked up at the bird on the branch. It cawed louder.

“What are you waiting for?” shouted to it the little girl, gesturing wildly. “Go! Go tell the Baron we found them! Hey! Shoo! Stupid bird!”

Finally the bird flew away, its precious missive ready to be cawed back.

“What are we going to do?” asked Catalina with a frail voice.

“We follow them. What do you think the Baron would want us to do? If we go back now, he’ll send us after them anyway. You remember what he said? We’re the stealthier!”

“How are we going to follow them?”

“Like we always did,” replied her sister in arms, “with a five-stars carriage.”

A cart of hay drove on the path. The man in front was totally oblivious to what happened there only a couple of minutes ago. The stealthy little girls jumped on the hay, and hid there, until they would have to take another road.

~ ~ ~

In Vardaros, the Baron was walking with firm steps toward the stables. He had just got word that his daughter had stolen two horses. He had already sent his spies after her.

As he opened the stables’ door, he felt someone behind him.

“What are you doing, Baron?” asked Sugracha.

“What we should have done when you told us about the Coronan princess. Go meet king Frederic.”

“You will do no such thing,” she warned him.

“Oh, and why that?” he laughed.

If this short limping woman could order anything of him, that would be joke. Sugracha lifted her walking stick as she walked to him, and hit the cobblestones with it once.

“You do not care for Frederic. You do not care for the princess. You do not care for your daughter,” she told to the man under her spell. “You care to help me get what I’m here for. We will go to Corona. In time. Now is not yet the time.”

She lifted her stick and hit the floor again. The Baron shook his head.

“Then I’ll stay here in Vardaros,” he decided, his voice blank.

~ ~ ~

Someone knocked at Matthews’ room. He put his quill next to the map he was annotating and went to open. Behind the door was standing queen Arianna. He bowed deeply in the second.

“You can rise up,” she told him, entering. “I have what you asked. But I will have to take them back today. My husband won’t be glad if he notices his maps are gone.”

“I understand,” said Tromus, walking back to his desk.

Arianna put the other map away, and unrolled the one she had with her. It was a wide map of Corona. One of the most recent maps. Tromus moved around the map, looking at it. He took a reading stone nearby, and searched the tiniest thing possible.

“I already asked you what you were looking for. You never told me,” reminded Arianna.

“I told you I’d tell when I’ll find it. And…” he said, moving closer to the map, “seems like it’s now. Come, your Majesty. It it here, what I was looking for. The area has changed a lot since I was last there. But buildings don’t move, even if forests do.”

“I know this tower, Tromus. I told you to not keep secrets. I went there already. What do you know of this tower?”

“You know it…? I mean, I was certain it would have been forgotten. Well, I wonder if there might be some powerful residual magic there. If I could use it to try to seal Zhan Tiri away, even if I don’t have the knowledge to do it permanently, it would give us more time to think of a permanent solution.”

“I see. What is that residual magic you’re talking about?”

“It’s a kind of magic that stays where a spell or anything using magic has been performed. For example, when I tried to do magic on you, I left traces of magic, very faint, but it’s still out there in the garden. This one shouldn’t do much, but in this tower, I stayed with Zhan Tiri quite some time, and I’m sure she left powerful magic there. If we could shut her magic from there, that would be one way she couldn’t use to come back from the Lost Realm.”

“This tower was used by a witch called Gothel for years,” said Arianna angrily. “Zhan Tiri was there centuries ago. Her magic is gone.”

“Gothel, you say?”

“Yes. Why?”

“She was there too with Zhan Tiri and Demanitus. But then… why would she come back there? And, wait, when did you say she used the tower?”

“Until recently. She died by my hand a couple of months ago.”

“She lived that long? That’s impressive.”

“That was magic.”

“Humans don’t live that long naturally?”

“I’m afraid not,” replied Arianna with a small laugh, surprised by his misunderstanding of human life expectancy.

“That’s unfortunate. I was starting to enjoy your company, and you’re telling me you will die before me.”

“Tromus, focus.”

“Of course, your Majesty,” he corrected himself.

He looked again at the map, estimating the distance with the castle, the time to go there, and several other measures.

“So Gothel was there part of the whole time she spend here… Do you know what she was doing?”

“Sadly, yes.”

“Oh, am I unburying a bad memory?” guessed Tromus.

“She had my daughter prisoner. And until recently, no one knew. You can’t tell anyone, Tromus. Not even my husband.”

“I’ll be as mute as a grave,” he promised. “But then, you never told me, your daughter, you know where she is?”

“Tromus, I understand that what you’re doing requires me to remember all this, and tell you some of the secrets I discovered, yet, there are things I’d rather keep to myself for now.”

“I understand, your Majesty. I will need to go to that tower. I can’t estimate from here all the magic Zhan Tiri could have left, and if Gothel’s magic affected in some ways.”

“I’ll have two horses ready after lunch.”

“Two?”

“You don’t seriously think I trust you enough to let you go there alone?”

“I simply assumed you had more important matter to attend to,” he explained with a shrug.

“Saving my kingdom and the world from a threat like Zhan Tiri isn’t a matter important enough for you?” she genuinely asked him.

To that, Tromus laughed lightly, not by mockery, but to his own false assumption.

“Of course it is important. I suppose I’ll see you in the stables then,” he assumed while rolling the map to give it back to Arianna.

“You suppose well,” she confirmed. “Don’t be late.”

“I won’t keep my queen waiting,” Tromus assured, with a smile.

She slightly tilted her head, he answered by bowing, and she left the room with the maps she had brought.

An hour later, she was at lunch with Frederic, neither of them able to start a conversation without feeling the other tense. Whether it was the failed revenge over king Trevor, or a refusal to speak, mouths were shut, except to eat the meal.

So when after lunch Arianna went to the stables, Frederic didn’t try to stop her. If they had succeeded in talking, they would have done it earlier. He watched her leave from behind the windows, while her horse trotted in the streets of Corona till the forest on the other side of the bridge. So close, yet so faraway already. Like their daughter.

The memory stabbed him right away, and he fell on the purple velvet covered bench by the window. He called Nigel, not ill anymore, to cancel all meetings for the afternoon. It had been a long time since he hadn’t felt that sad, that lost and alone. And now, with Arianna, his dear Arianna, fleeing to breath the free air of the forest, he felt even more alone.

Could he be a good king if he always thought of the past? If he couldn’t face the present and think of the future? That was a question that haunted him for weeks now. But he was alone. A king can’t resign. That’s not how things are. And resigning would bring mockeries from the other kingdoms. A kingdom with a failing king is an agonizing kingdom. Everybody knew that. Frederic couldn’t let anyone out of the castle know.

“Nigel,” he called, as his adviser was about to leave the room, “what would do, if you were at my place?”

“Your Majesty, I can’t answer for that. You will do great.”

Frederic sighed, and hid his head in his hands.

“I should stand down for a while. I’d only mess up. And now with Ari gone… Am I doing the right thing, Nigel?”

“She will be back, your Majesty,” assured Nigel.

“Yes. But who? I trust Arianna to come back soon, but, my daughter?”

Nigel understood, and went to stand closer to his childhood friend.

“She will be found, Frederic. We are not giving up.”

“I heard there were rumors… Are they true?”

“What rumors?”

“That this Matthews might hide a lot from us… Arianna said I shouldn’t trust him… But I heard maybe she does…”

“Your Majesty,” reacted Nigel. “I heard of no such things. Mister Matthews is only doing his job. As I do.”

“I suppose you’re right,” admitted Frederic, worn by weariness.

He stood up, looking again through the window, but not being able to see Arianna anymore. She was too far away, in the forest, enjoying the open air, as she always loved to do, even though he never truly understood that need, that hunger for the fright of riding alone in a plain, under cascades, through woodlands.

“If someone needs me, I’ll be in my room,” he finally said. “But… I’d rather stay alone. For now.”

“Right, your Majesty.”

~ ~ ~

Arianna arrived in the forest soon after leaving the castle’s stables. She had taken a fair time in town, greeting her people while on a trot toward the bridge. And on the thirteen arched centuries old bridge, she slapped the reins, and went on a gallop till the other side. Away, she could already see Tromus, riding another horse, wearing his usual claret attire. When Arianna came by for their rendezvous, he walked to her.

“It’s this way,” she told him directly, before he could ask anything. “Onward!”

Her destrier flew through the forest on a gallop that few horses in the kingdom could follow. Few were named Maximus after all. At such speed, Tromus’ horse struggled to keep up the pace, and was left behind in no time. So, Arianna waited for him, then stormed onward, waited and stormed again. Until, they reached a hill.

“The tower is behind this hill. We’re near the frontier with a county under Equis’ sovereignty. That’s why we never searched here, long ago. The patch of land has always been disputed. Gothel chose her lair well. But we signed a treaty a few years back for the cliffs and hills, and now, from miles south to the mountains north, all of this is in Corona,” she said with a winner smile. “Race you!”

She stormed again, and her white steed raced forward in the forest, leaving Tromus once more behind. He followed nonetheless.

When he arrived at a wall of large stones and vines, where he had seen Arianna go through, one could believe he had been the one to run and not the horse, if you were to judge by his heavy breathing.

“You… you win,” he told her, finally falling on the ground by her side.

She helped him stand up, and as he lifted his head, there it was, in the clearing, before the cliffs. The Tower. It strangely looked more grim than centuries ago, when it had been a war watchtower, as though what had happened there had infused in the entire area.

Arianna was walking there, extending her arms and breathing deeply, enjoying the view and the place, that couldn’t do when she had come there about four months ago.

“How I missed all that! Feeling the sun on my face, the dirt on my feet, the wind in my hair! I’ve been queen for nearly twenty years, and I never truly had the opportunity of leaving the castle to just go out like this. I missed it so much!”

“I enjoy seeing you happy, your Majesty, but we’re here for something else,” reminded Tromus.

“Right, of course,” she said, straightening herself. “What will you need, to know if there’s this residual magic you were talking about?” asked Arianna, walking forward till the staircase at the back of the tower.

“To go in the Tower. I am a being more sensible to magic than you. I’ll feel it. Though, from down here, I have a bad presentiment. If the magic Zhan Tiri left was strong enough, I should feel it from here. And it’s still very faint, like what I felt in the castle.”

“Let’s not be discouraged. We climb up there, and only then I’ll accept your analyze of the place.”

She went first in the dark corridor. It didn’t stayed dark long, as Tromus created a flame in his hand and lighted the way. The stairs hadn’t changed since the last time she was there. Always dirty, filled with vines, spiders running in the interstices between stones, it was the same as before.

When they arrived to the trap and opened it, they were welcomed by a cloud of dust that made them cough. As they entered the room, Arianna went to open the window closed by a draft. Tromus lighted the torches resting on the walls, and rediscovered the tower, in a totally different fashion he had known it so long ago. He had left it as a military tower, now, there was paint everywhere, and furnitures, clothes thrown across the room. It had been inhabited, but not by soldier anymore.

Tromus then went to the center of the room, and sat there, cross-legged on the cold tiled floor. Arianna watched him do, and sat on the stairs, not even thinking of siting in the armchair where Gothel had sat all those years. She’d rather throw all that was still trace of Gothel out by the window and never hear of the witch ever again.

For a while, nothing happened. Birds chirped outside, wind blew gently the leaves in the trees, bells for nearby towns rang, and still, Arianna and Tromus were there, in the Tower, searching for a magic that could possibly not even be there anymore.

Yet, there was something. Faint, but something. It was in the Tower, but there was a feeling of familiarity Tromus perceived that he had felt before. The Tower’s residual magic only amplified the feeling of Zhan Tiri’s own residual magic. It was there, but not in the room, nor in the walls, even less in the furnitures. It was in someone. Tromus tilted his head toward Arianna. She gave him a silent _what have you found?_ face, and his own mouth opened, astonished.

“Something’s wrong?” asked Arianna, not liking his sudden expression.

“The magic from Zhan Tiri I feel. It’s not from the Tower. It’s… from you, your Majesty.”

“What? No, I’m not that Zhan Tiri.”

“That’s not what it means. It means you were once in a place that possesses a lot of Zhan Tiri’s residual magic, and it flowed to you, and now, you are holding it. When my spell couldn’t work on you, it may not have been the few of Sundrop in you, but Zhan Tiri’s magic.”

“Is there a way to be sure which one?”

“I’m afraid not. Distinguishing two types of magic is something tricky out there, but inside someone, it’s impossible. Even for me.”

“But… I don’t understand, how could it have possibly passed to me?”

“Were you once in a place where Zhan Tiri had been?”

“I mean, sure, certainly, she was in Corona long ago, there has to be places I went where she had been too.”

Tromus thought a moment.

“For you to have so much magic must have provoked a reaction of sort… And had to be from a place where Zhan Tiri used a lot of magic… Do you recall being surprisingly sick, or a place where a battle had happened?”

“Sick? Well, the one time I can remember for sure was when I was pregnant, and, few days before Rapunzel was born, I feel ill. I’ve never been ill ever since.”

“And it was then only the Sundrop could heal you,” guessed Tromus, getting the puzzle pieces together. “Where had you been, before that?”

“The castle mostly. And even before, my honeymoon. Fred and I went in the mountains.”

At this word, Tromus stood up suddenly and went to her.

“Mountains? North in the kingdom?” he asked, his eyes dreading the realization.

“Yes, the mountains. Tromus, you’re scaring me. Say what you must. Don’t leave it there.”

He sat down next to Arianna, unable to speak for a moment.

“I’m waiting,” she firmly reminded.

“Zhan Tiri and Demanitus battled there in these mountains. You must have been contaminated by Zhan Tiri’s magic. That’s certainly what made you ill. And now, you’re the only receptacle possessing such power from her that I know. You, your Majesty, are the key to defeating Zhan Tiri and seal her away once and for all.”

Even with this information that could save them, Tromus’ face was darker and sadder by the second. Arianna noticed it right away.

“But I know nothing of magic. How could I even do it?”

“That’s not what terrifies me the most. Arianna, if I may call you that, residual magic is not meant to be used. It’s not like the inherent magic of something. It’s too volatile and unpredictable. To use residual magic from a place, like you’d use inherent magic, often leaves this place uninhabitable for most species. If the magic had been in the Tower, it would have destroyed it. But for anyone to take such magic from you, from any living being, would certainly kill the holder of the magic.”

That silenced them for a moment.

“Unless it is another magic than residual magic,” he tried to lessen the tension.

Yet, the air in the Tower felt more and more heavy on their shoulders. There were secrets that ought to not be told, to not be known, as to not doom those they were about. And it was too late for that.

Arianna was the first of them to stand up, and walk to the window, looking the forest so close, as her daughter had done for so long, while her mother didn’t even know she was there. There was something strange about this place, the magic it contained, all that had happened there, all the lies and secrets that still laid there, somewhere.

She sighed, and looked down, at the windowsill where she had posed her hands on the wood warmed by the sun. She could picture Rapunzel there, sitting during the day, filling her mind with this landscape, and then, going in the room to draw it on the walls, where maybe there were today dozens of layers of paints that represents the years she had spent up there. And maybe, on that windowsill, yes, Arianna could see Cassandra’s warm smile at her daughter, close as ever, more that only friendly.

That was not the only things she saw in this Tower. The sadness, the anger at Gothel who caused all this agony, and yet, the immense thankfulness toward Cassandra who was able, in her own way, to help Rapunzel adapt to the world beyond the walls of this prison. Where were they now? Arianna hadn’t received any letter from them. Maybe they were too far away for Owl to come back to Corona. She hoped they were fine.

As she turned to watch the room around she saw her shadow. The sun started to set. The shadow on the floor felt like it reflected her sadness, like tears, black as death, melted from her fingers. She raised a hand, and the shadow showed claws. Around her head, there was like the shadow of a bird flying behind, or branches and thorns, just the time of a blink of the eyes. So she closed her eyes. She couldn’t be thinking clearly, there, in this place.

“Is everything all right?” she heard Tromus ask.

He wasn’t sitting on the stairs anymore, and was standing next to her. On his face was an expression of sorrow she didn’t know him. Frankly, after knowing he had been a minion to Zhan Tiri, she wasn’t even sure it was an expression he could bear and be true to it. Yet, his voice told her otherwise. Maybe he was really hoping, and doing all to be worthy of a redemption after all.

“No, it’s not,” she admitted, turning to watch the interior of the Tower again.

It was filled with memories of the childhood of her own child she didn’t even had the chance to see grow up. All that was there, she could see it now, but she had been robbed of it. And for what? Greed? Power? _All Gothel ever got and deserved was her death_ , thought Arianna with rage.

“If you prefer, we could continue this conversation another day at the castle, your Majesty,” suggested Tromus, sensing the tension rise.

“We should, yes,” she concurred, her voice stern. “People will talk,” she said, preferring to not speak of magic anymore. “I’ve heard that they already talk. Let’s get back to the castle,” she said while going to the staircase.

“What are people talking about?” genuinely asked Tromus.

Arianna didn’t answer his interrogation. They had other more important matter at hand. As she walked down the stairs, she knew an elusive explanation would still be needed.

“Trust me when I say that, rumors can be deadly. And if we want to keep your identity and origin secret, we’d better avoid any rumor regarding you,” warned Arianna.

“Well then. I’m sure you know what you’re talking about,” he shrugged.

Their horses were still there, grazing the green grass around the Tower.

As they rode back to town, they didn’t say a word. They didn’t need to. There was too much, to say and to refuse to hear, to realize and to accept. They would need time, before deciding what to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who are Arianna and Tromus to each other? As the author, I'll tell you they're friends... But other characters might guess otherwise... And rumors can hurt... Now, won't spoil more...


	9. When darkness lights the way

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ensis Wiseblade's backstory incoming! And starting a Coronan subplot... Things are moving

When the team at the Spire went back down to the Keeper’s tower, a lot of questions was fusing to the ghost of Ensis Wiseblade, translator and writer of researches from Demanitus. One by one, they had been able to understand a little more their signing, and Ensis had already adapted to them so they could understand each other.

The hidden door leading to the hidden staircase was still unlocked. They had no way to know what time it was out there. And even if Calliope was awake, they’d rather avoid her and the whole chatting about the artifacts kept there, whether she was looking for them to climb the Spire, or simply doing her daily Keeper’s stuff.

So, as one, they pushed the door, and went back in the tower. The light blinded them a moment while their eyes readjusted to the daylight. The snores from upstairs told them they could leave now without getting another guided visit of the Spire. When the door was closed as it had been the day before, there was only the trace of the keyhole and the hinges hidden behind shelves to betray its existence. On their tip-toes, they left.

The scroll written by Ensis was like the one Quirin had given them. It was part of a whole bigger scroll, and was about the Sundrop and Moonstone. There was, on the Spire’s scroll, a profile, of Demanitus, and a drawing of the Moonstone’s coral-like shield, both drawn by Ensis Wiseblade back in the day his hands had still more flesh on his bones, and he wasn’t as ghostly as now.

As of now, they were more certain than ever they had to go to the Dark Kingdom. Yet, how long would they journey take? A long time, that was for sure. For the day and the days after, they were back on the road, till the coast. There was an inland sea they would have to cross, and the caravan was a land transportation, far from a water one.

With such barriers before them, they went to a little coastal village, composed of a couple of fishing huts, few better built houses away on the hills, and floating houses made with old boats, swinging gently with the dance of the tide. A ferry would come in two weeks to join the other side of the sea.

By the road, it took them less than a month from the Spire to get to the little village. That day, the tide was low when the team arrived with their caravan near the shore. The sky was a milky white, cloudy and yet the weather was dry. They left the caravan to walk around and crack backs too numb by staying sit during too many hours on the road. Stretching was what they needed all. All except the ghost-yet-not-ghost of Ensis Wiseblade. The specter had been very cryptic so far.

Yet, they knew things about him. Even if the truth seemed complete, there were always pieces missing. From what Ensis told, and from what the scrolls told, the puzzle soon made sense.

Back when he was a fully living human, Ensis was born the younger and bastard half-brother of the warrior queen who founded the Dark Kingdom. She had united under her banner the coalition of lords who were at war for as long as the Moonstone had fell on Earth. This way, she stopped single-handedly all the useless bloodshed and battles for the Moonstone that cursed their lands, by only protecting itself.

Ensis had been her most trusted officer for a while, and then, when peace was back on the lands, he had left her army, and created another, to protect the most precious jewel that brought them together. The Moonstone. As he was the queen’s brother, he named the army the Brotherhood.

The army was created on a stormy Tuesday when the very first seal of the order was forged in the same black metal used nowadays. The seal, that was the kingdom’s seal too, was a circle to represent the unity of the belligerent lords, with three shards of black rocks from the Moonstone sealing them together.

Ensis, who wasn’t yet called Wiseblade but Strongblade, called the troupes to reunites under his banner at the then abandoned Cursed Tree, as they called it in the Dark Kingdom. They trained a long time there. Days and weeks, months and years turned out to be decades of training and occupation of the Cursed Tree.

Until a fateful day when Ensis fell from his horse in an ambush while going back to the Dark Kingdom. His nephews found them in the snow alone and unconscious, and brought him back to the dark castle. He stayed months in a deep coma. His absence and the absence of the order he used to assure in the Cursed Tree caused much ruckuses and the Brotherhood soon left the Tree. All the stones sculpted by mighty warriors, all the rooms where Ensis had done his work of researches on the Moonstone, all was left alone, abandoned, once more.

While comatose, Ensis wasn’t alone anymore though. He was in the dark castle, and not far away, rested in its coral-like nest the Moonstone. Like the faraway Sundrop to the soils around it, its power was in the stone itself, yet also infused in the area around.

And staying in the castle as long as he did while comatose, Ensis was many times visited by the Moonstone’s magic. It felt something familiar in him. The people living there couldn’t know, neither could unconscious Ensis, yet, the Moonstone recognized in him the magic of the Great Tree, which was far from Cursed. It was its home. After weeks and weeks unconscious, Ensis’ body was filled with the magic from the Moonstone.

He had so much of that decaying magic in him that, when he came to, he wasn’t alive anymore. Nor was he dead. When standing up from his bed, the first object his hand found was a stone, not much bigger than a great short battle axe handle. The magic flew to it, and for some time, it contained what had transformed the Brotherhood’s founder. Until, days after days, weeks after weeks, the magic went back to him, to the Great Tree’s magic calling it, and stayed.

From then on, Ensis was an outcast. He still looked fully human, but he held a cursed magic. With his weapon and a horse, he left the kingdom he had been banished from. Wearing a large black cloak and with only his long and trusted claymore, blade black as night, he went away, to the west. He was a shadow in the nights, lone rider on the hills, between mountains, through forests. Ensis battled many times, and each time, won. Like an invincible saver, when he saw people in trouble, he jumped into combat. But as the years went on, and his body resembled less and less the living warrior he had been, all his opponents saw was a cloud of darkness in the form of a human. A specter. A lich. A demon. An abomination.

Only one man accepted them as he was, both because the man was a wise one, and because he had become blind of his only remaining eye in his late years, and couldn’t judge what people kept telling him. This man, few knew he had lost his sight, was Demanitus. At his laboratory in the mountains,he and Ensis communicated through sounds, and music, through Braille and letters carved on rocks. And during the years Ensis spent discussing magic, Sundrop and Moonstone with Demanitus, they wrote a scroll together. They both had knowledge, one over the Sundrop, the other over the Moonstone.

And as much as possessing part of the Moonstone was what enabled Ensis to live, it was to him a curse. He couldn’t die anymore. He was cursed to see the world, to see his home kingdom slowly fall with the madness of the dark kings and queens enchanting statues to protect the stone, and by that, dooming themselves to an unresting everlasting life.

Unless, there could be a solution after all, to leave this world, as the next would never come to Ensis. When he was out of the coma, the stone he touched received part of the Moonstone’s power as well, and each time Ensis took in his hands what had become to him a lucky charm, he felt better, as though the stone contained a soothing energy. In fact, it contained part of his soul too, that had passed to the stone when he had carried it for the very first time. It had trapped his mind.

After Demanitus’ passing, Ensis retracted his whole soul and what was left of his body in the stone itself. In time, the magical artifact would join the collection where other magical artifacts were kept, at the Spire. Much later, the Moonstone in him would find the Sundrop in someone else.

Except… he didn’t expect that someone to hold nearly all of the Sundrop and not only part as he did the Moonstone. He didn’t expect either to see so many decades span between the time he went away, and the time magic awaken him once again.

Much had changed. Kingdoms were created, were at war against each other. Kingdoms perished and disappeared, and other flourished. And now, the Sundrop and Moonstone were back. For what? That, neither Ensis nor the Sundrop’s holder knew. There were powers in the world, powers none could pretend to fully understand. There had been combinations of events, more or less great for them, and they had received powers that weren’t even supposed to be wielded by humans.

And now, they were wielded by two humans, who hadn’t asked anything to anyone. That princess, or her mother, could’ve died at birth and never receive the Sundrop. That soldier could’ve died falling from his horse and never been comatose, never received the Moonstone. And both Sundrop and Moonstone would still be in their first host, flower for one, opal for the other.

And yet, if things were to turn out with sensible holders of these cosmic powers, there had to be reason. Or was there really one?

That day, these questions kept turning and turning, going and coming back to Ensis and Rapunzel.

She was sitting on the wooden benches directly on the sand, with behind her, the setting sun. Ensis, volatile cloud of smoke in which shreds of his black cloak were floating, was around, somewhere and somehow, a bit everywhere at once. He had a half-corporeal form, yet, being a lich of sort with the Mindtrap had its advantages when it came to move way differently than fully living humans.

As dusk arrived, most of the team was back at the caravan.

Since they left Corona, they had rearranged the space. The double-bed sized room for Cassandra and Rapunzel hadn’t change much, only that they had to level the floor to gain more storage room under the bed. That way, the storage under Xavier’s bed was smaller, the planks of his bed leveled down and they had added another level of planks at mid-high to form bunk beds for Eugene and Varian. Xavier rested in the back room, but seldom slept at all. One day not long after leaving Corona, when Cassandra proposed to take his place riding the caravan, he had explained it was the Sundrop, that he had used it for so long, in so little quantities, that he rarely needed to sleep anymore.

There was only one person still out. Rapunzel, still sitting on the coast, watching the veil of clouds hiding the sky. She was caught in her thinking, as was Ensis not far away near the caravan. Dark fell fast. When Cassandra arrived behind Rapunzel to invite her to join them for dinner, she spooked her.

“I’m sorry, didn’t know you were that far,” told her Cassandra, offering her a hand to stand up.

Rapunzel took her hand and hoisted herself up, patting the sand off of her trousers, before going back to the caravan with her beloved.

“Yeah,” she said, “I was thinking…”

“About what?”

“About the Sundrop and Moonstone.”

“Oh.” Cass let out, slowing their pace.

It was expected that Rapunzel would think of the big theme of the journey. Yet, there was something in her tone, in her frail and hesitant voice that hid something she wouldn’t say yet.

“Take your time,” said Cassandra.

Instead of time, Rapunzel took a deep breath.

“Since Ensis was released from the Mindtrap… I feel a bit different… I mean, before I felt different, but I thought it was just because we had left the Tower. But now, I feel like I was at the Tower. Not in a bad, imprisonment way, but like an inside feeling, like something that had been hidden, and at the Spire, found again.”

“I don’t follow you…”

“You know how Xavier said that when I touched the rocks, the Moonstone have passed some of its power to me?”

“Yeah.”

“When my hair touched the Mindtrap and released Ensis, I think the part of Moonstone magic I had passed to them.”

“So… You think your Sundrop power is what? Free again?”

“I… I wish I could try but… If it’s not… I don’t want to be disappointed…”

“I get it. Go at your own pace, Raps. I won’t force you.”

“Thanks.”

“I’m here for you, you know that right?” said Cassandra, putting an arm around Rapunzel’s shoulders.

“I know,” she replied with a warm smile, that quickly faded.

“Oh, I know that look. What’s bothering you?”

“I had part of the Moonstone. And, supposedly, gave it back to Ensis. But, what if Ensis now has part of the Sundrop? What if neither of us have magic anymore… Mother was right, I’m not ready for the world…”

“Gothel wasn’t your Mother, Raps. She was mine. And I renounced her.”

“I… Yes, you’re right, but… Without my magic, who am I? I’m nothing, no one!”

“Raps,” said Cassandra, firmly and yet, sad. “Cut it out, please, you are more than just your hair, your magic. Since we got out, think of all you’ve done! You’ve met your family, your real mother, discovered wonderful people, made friends, found things neither of us could have imagine even existed. Raps, you’re not defined by your magic. Please, for you, for us, you got to understand that.”

As she was talking, Cassandra had moved to face Rapunzel, and was holding her hand in her own. She lifted them to her face and posed a gentle kiss on her knuckles.

“I know, Cass, I know all that… It’s just… I’ve spent eighteen years with all that stuck in my head and… It doesn’t want to get out. With the captain, you, you had that time… Cass… Promise me you’ll be patient… Please…”

“I know, Raps, take your time. All you need.”

Rapunzel mouthed a “thanks”, and withdrew her hands to slide them against Cassandra’s sides, until her two hands reached each other behind her back. She put her questioning head on her chest, letting Cassandra massage her back.

Steps were heard coming behind them. Rapunzel rose her head and saw Xavier. He had his usual wise uncle-ish smile, and handed them two spyglasses, the same he had given them that first night with the lanterns in Corona. Around his eyes, wrinkles were creasing. They weren’t even halfway in the journey, and it was weighting on everyone.

“The clouds seem to go away tonight, you should be able to see the stars,” he simply said. “How are you holding up?”

“Fine,” lied Rapunzel through her half-opened mouth.

“We left too soon,” translated Cassandra. “We… we’re still far away from anything we’ve known, Xavier, and it’s difficult. For both of us,” she admitted with a sigh.

“I understand perfectly. Though it’s been a very long time, it was difficult for me too to leave my family and go study with Demanitus.”

“How long did it take you to… Get used to that?” asked Rapunzel.

“Don’t know. It’s too far away. But, Demanitus, at the time I didn’t know him much. He was a bit scary, the man who knows everything for a kid like me. You two, you got each other. That’s a richness no one can take away. If you think we’re going too fast for you, we’ll slow down. The Moonstone waited years and years. It can wait few more weeks if you need that time.”

“We’ll think about it,” said Cassandra.

He nodded, and left the spyglasses by their side on the ground, before heading back to the caravan. The boys were preparing a meal with a couple of fishes bought earlier to villagers. A shadow came over them as Ensis approached, his cloud-like form densifying to take a more human-like appearance.

“ _If it’s any consolation_ ,” he wrote on the sand, “ _when we’ll arrive to the Moonstone and reunite it with the Sundrop, I am likely to leave this world. The Moonstone has been keeping me on the world of the living, but without it, I’m as old, if not older, as your friend Xavier. Without magic keeping me here, I’ll be gone. You, Rapunzel, were born not long ago. You will live a life without magic bonding you to this world._ ”

He stopped writing, and lifted  his hooded skeletal head, haloed by its usual black cloud with firmaments blurring the edges.  He didn’t have eyes to close, nor mouth to twist anymore,  yet  there was under that shadowy hood like a  spectral mourning expression,  indescribable.

S o Rapunzel slowly let go of Cassandra, an d turned to Ensis,  moving her hands as though she held  the smoke and the firmaments of remaining shredded clothes  he wore. In  his invisible eyes, she understood  his pain, for she felt the same more and more.

Uncertainty. The readiness for the wor st that could possibly happen out there, back at  his home, back at the Dark Kingdom. This time, no magic flew to one another. Each magic had found  the holder it had chosen.

It was odd, to be connected to one another, through magic none could fully understand. It made them two facets of a  single  coin. Twins sealed by fate. And yet, in time, they would bo th bid farewell. There was this unsaid truth, this heavy realization, of knowing  how the path would end , and yet, accepting it? Or  undergoing it?

They had a burden to carry, they would do all it takes to finish what fate had started. No matter the price? That… None could predict.

Yet, a two-faced shadow keeping an eye from behind the trees of the coast knew for sure that sacrifices will have to be made. No matter the price. Her kingdom had decayed for too long to let it suffer any moment more.

To her, this eerie cloud-like person was a liar for sure. The Moonstone was an opal hidden in the depth of the dark castle in the Dark Kingdom, not a comatose forgotten hero of old, who claimed to have founded the Brotherhood.

Then again, neither Adira nor anyone these days knew who had founded the Brotherhood. But that wouldn’t change a thing. She would bring the Sundrop to the opal, and finally free her kingdom. And the king who had discarded the Brotherhood would have no other option but to admit his mistake and that she hadn’t been a fool to follow a tale.

Saving her kingdom. Receive the honors. She could do it. She will do it.

~ ~ ~

The trio led by Stalyan, and their Saporian hostage, had to stop not long after getting away form Vardaros and the pub. They went to another pub, away on the road, when one of the two horses decided two grown men to bear while trotting for hours was too much.

In the end, the break was more that resourceful. People were talking. And very few were minding who could listen to them. A conversation among all caught the attention of lady Caine right away.

“The witch’s dead,” she heard a patron say, lost in his beer.

“The witch? What witch? Was she hanged? Guillotined? Burned? That’s the only way to be done with those pests,” grumbled a woman at his table.

“Dunno,” said a third. “My cousin lives at the village near her cottage. Said she wasn’t there for months, that they sent a group there, and it was abandoned.”

“Good riddance,” muttered the first patron. “Bartender!” he shouted once his tankard was empty.

“And that’s not all,” said the third, squinting and trembling with the alcohol in her body, “he told me the queen came not long ago in the forest around.”

“Oh,” let out the second patron. “Nah, can’t be, she’s too well-born to come down there.”

“That’s not what my cousin saw!” replied the third. “Cousin Rufus doesn’t lie! Even with a belly full of beer,” she joked.

“I bet she knew the witch well then,” said the first drunk with a salacious smirk.

“Don’t be silly, you!” said the second, giving him a hard slap behind the head. “She’s not with that witch, that’s that new adviser of hers she sees, that’s what my auntie in Corona told me! Nah, the witch, she must know secrets, keeps the queen quiet. And the queen, one day, _shlack_ , free as a bird,” she said, running her thumb along her throat.

“I say the witch is the queen’s daughter!” shouted the third patron. “The queen’s never looked sad her daughter’s not there.”

“Oh my, that makes sense,” realized the first drunk through the fog of beer.

Few tables away, lady Caine kept an attentive ear to the conversation. Though it went into senseless theories rather than facts, she assumed the beginning could be true.

“Say, Stalyan,” she asked the woman at her table, “why don’t we take the scenic route and greet our dear queen Arianna?”

“You don’t seriously believe those three drunkards?” checked Stalyan with a suspicious raised eyebrow.

“Oh, but who said I believed them?” replied lady Caine. “What they guess might be nonsense, but what they say about a dead witch and the queen in the forest are facts, might be facts. They just handed us powder. Very explosive gunpowder. All we need to do is burn a kingdom down. Corona needs to go boom.”

“You remember what I said about not wanting the whole army at my doorstep?”

Lady Caine nodded. Stalyan had been pretty clear about that.

“Well you’re doing the same my dad does. If you’re out, go, I’m not forcing you to stay. I’ve got a fiance to catch and a princess to find and it’s the other way.”

“And I want to see is Corona suffering. I have all I need to put them all down. I got a revenge to take. For my dad. Say, I could take your hostage with me. He won’t be dead weight for you anymore.”

“He’s not dead weight, he’s valuable,” reminded Lance.

“He’s a Separatist of Saporia. He wants Corona down. I want it too. For different reasons. Leave me the man, and go on your quest. I’ll stay in Corona.”

“So you’ve chosen your side,” concluded Stalyan. “Very well. Go, then. Go and take him. And if those drunkards were wrong all along, you’ll regret to not have stayed with us.”

“I know what I’m doing,” retorted Caine, standing up.

Without anymore formality, she left the pub, leaving a coin to the bartender.

Outdoor, she went to the horses, one standing, the other one laying in the grass. The Separatist hostage was gagged and tied up to a tree just few meters away. Caine went to him, and took the rag off his mouth, while keeping her dagger near his eyes.

“Scream, I’ll take one eyeball,” she warned, pressing the cold blade against his eyebrow.

“What do you want?” he asked, displeased.

“You want Corona down?”

“What do you think? I’m a Saporian. Of course I want Corona down to ashes.”

“Then we have a deal. I’m the boss. Call any of your friends, the deal is off. Escape, I’ll kill you on the spot.”

“Doesn’t seem like a very good deal to me.”

“Or I could just skin you right here and now,” she added, pressing her blade just enough to cut a short red line on his forehead.

He growled, unable to move against the tree, yet wanting more than anything to get away from the dagger.

“Argh! You win.”

“Good boy,” said Caine, taking her dagger back.

“As long as we share the loot,” he added.

“The loot is a whole kingdom. There’s nothing to share.”

She cut the ropes holding him to the tree with a sharp move, and took the man by the collar.

“You walk, I ride,” she said, tying the ropes holding his wrists to the saddle.

He rolled his eyes, but said nothing. Better keep his tongue for later. She mounted the horse, and pulled the rope. This was going to be long way to go back to Corona. Thanks to Stalyan going away from the kingdom. At least, lady Caine would be able to spread her gunpowder everywhere. The damages would only be more satisfying.

“You got a name?” she asked the hostage turned ally-against-his-will walking on the ground by her side.

“Andrew,” he said.

“Right.”

“What’s the plan… Boss,” he asked with a disgusted voice.

“Spread good words about our dear darling Arianna,” she answered with a smirk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like everywhere, Corona has gossip… And, with the history of the lost princess, I can but imagine that gossip would only fly faster if related to the royal family, from the people as well as from other nobles. In the next chapter, we’ll see where that leads us...


	10. A poisoner doesn’t have to show their face to kill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't mind the title... no one dies... yet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy one-year anniversary to Plus Est En Vous! 🥳

For lady Caine and her prisoner – or ally if you trusted her words and not the way she made him walk the journey – the way to the island of Corona was a long one. It could be done in a couple of days from the pub where she had left Stalyan and Lance. But they made a lot of pauses on their journey. Inns, markets, farmers, taverns, shops, libraries, bakeries… To lady Caine, everything was a good excuse to stop and spread her good words.

To this butcher cutting big slices of meat, she said “Did you know the queen killed a witch? Yeah, horrible, right? I know! That’s awful!”

To this farmer’s wife and brother knitting in their garden, she said “Word gets that the queen is seeing a witch… You didn’t know? Oh, yes, seeing, like, _seeing_ , you know. You heard it was her new adviser? Don’t know… Why not both?”

To these kids after school, she said “You know how little we see the queen these days? What do you say? We see her more than ever? No way! And your neighbor says she has killed someone. Oh my, and I thought she was just being blackmailed. What’s blackmail? Ask your parents.”

To this group of fishermen by the river, she said “I’m going to Corona, anything I should know? What? The queen is fomenting a coup against king Frederic? Oh poor man, he won’t see it coming.”

To this caravan of wandering merchants, she said “Heard that the law against criminals tightens around Corona, you should be safe. What do you say? The queen is a criminal? I always thought she didn’t have a ruler personality, but that? What? She killed a witch? Ten? Nah, she’ll escape hanging, she’s the queen. Oh, you know Corona’s laws. She can’t escape hanging. Yeah, not since the princess was kidnapped. Poor kid. No wonder her mother’s crazy. Losing a relative leaves that kind of scars…”

In the matter of two weeks, she didn’t have to say anything else. The words deadlier than wars were all around Corona, and certainly in the neighbor kingdoms too.

And now, lady Caine and Andrew were at a pub in the city island of Corona, sipping a beer, while hearing the people around them. A boy handed newspapers in the streets, shouting the headlines. _Queen Arianna, shame on you!_ they said. Soldiers called for order. They weren’t much listened to.

There was a war outdoor, and yet, it was a very peaceful sight to lady Caine and the Separatist. The latter only felt held back, unable to act on his own. It was frustrating.

“What do we do now?” he finally asked.

“We watch a kingdom crumble to ashes,” simply answered Caine.

“From a pub? I want to be in the streets, to fight for my people!”

“Your people,” repeated Caine with a disdainful sigh. “Not everything is about the Saporians.”

“We lost the war.”

“Revise your history. Corona and Saporia united. No one ate the other.”

“Still. I want to fight.”

“Not every battle has to be played on the big scene. Wait and see. All good things to those who wait,” she reminded him, playing not so thoughtlessly with her dagger on the wood of the table.

Andrew settled back on his chair and waited, grumbling disapprovingly. But their disagreements had cost him a finger already. He needed to keep the other nine as long as possible.

~ ~ ~

“I don’t know, Fred, I have no idea what all of this is,” repeated Arianna for the umpteenth time that morning.

In the war room, the three dimensional map had been moved away, and in lieu there were pile of newspapers, and letters of nobles and officers, from Corona and afar. Some were showing their supports, some were joining the gossip.

“We can’t let things like this, it will only worsen,” kept saying Nigel, standing on one side of the room.

“We must deny all these preposterous allegations,” confirmed Matthews, standing on the opposite side of the room.

“No one is asking you, Matthews!” shouted king Frederic to her wife’s adviser.

“Fred, you’re not believing what the people say, aren’t you?” checked Arianna, a sudden angry and unsure glance showing on her face.

“Ari, I know they’re lying, but I can’t be blind. All this must have started somewhere! And who is this witch everyone keeps talking about? I want answers!”

“But I don’t have them! Fred. Look at me when I’m talking. Someone, anyone said they saw me, and thought something. That doesn’t mean they were right.”

“I know, darling, I know, but…”

“No _but_ , Fred. We will make a public appearance and say that all of this,” she said gesturing to the table, “is nothing more than bloody gossip.”

“I can’t just say my entire people is wrong.”

“Then say it’s me who’s wrong. Go on. I dare you.”

“You’re not, darling. I can’t believe anyone in their right mind would say such things about you. What if it had been me? I could be the next.”

“We have to find the source of these fake news and sue them,” proposed Matthews.

“Surely there are political reasons,” added Nigel. “We had reports that the Separatists of Saporia seemed to have lost one of their key member. He might be laying in the shadows and orchestrating all that.”

“Our last investigations on the Separatists gave us nothing,” precised the captain, standing near the main door.

“I will write,” declared Arianna. “I will tell the people they’re wrong. I have to be the one do it. Anyone else would raise suspicions. And if some try to still believe these canards, we’ll do as we always did. With force.”

“After the anti-criminal policy of the last two decades, your Majesty, I fear this might have the opposite effect…” warned Nigel. “We don’t want a revolt, only order.”

“I will write,” repeated Arianna, “and then, we’ll see. Now, sirs, you will excuse me, I have a public letter to write,” she said, bowing her head just enough to thank them for their attention, as she left the room.

She went directly at her room, and took a piece of paper and a quill. Tonight, the printers would have a letter to print for the people. She looked around, thinking how to even start. It was… difficult, to say the least. There was so many different gossips, and people were saying so much nonsense… Where to even begin to contradict? To bring back truth? Would she choose a fake information first, and the other last, her opponents would soon say the order says what’s true what’s fake, and the nonsense would only grow.

She sighed, pulling the paper into a ball and throwing it away, taking another one on the table. This was going to be a long day.

At dusk, she had a couple of letters ready. All were on her side, and all would be sent to the press. Each printer would have a different letter. All would say the queen is white as snow, no witch, no adviser, nothing in the back of her husband nor her kingdom. None were signed.

Only one letter, to the biggest printer in town, would say something else. It wouldn’t just deny. It would attack. Attack those who attacked first. Make them pay. Say the queen didn’t do any of the things people said she did, and that, listening to the good people of Corona blaspheming like vultures around a dead cow, the queen was unwell. She knew many Coronans had known her daughter’s birth, and knew how much she feared illness, how much it would kill the kingdom itself to see her dead. Her last line, in this letter among others, said the queen would rather die by her own hand than to die by the hand of her enemies.

A flair for drama. Just perfect. Enough people would realize the gossip was nothing more than words flying mindlessly, without any root in the reality of the world. Others would ask themselves and chose a side. And the last would see in her fall the opportunity to strike at last. And fall in her trap.

A knock on the door spooked her while she was folding the letters in their envelops.

“Come in,” she called, once the letters were all secured.

The door opened with a light creak of its hinges, and Frederic entered.

“How do you feel?” he asked her.

“How do _you_ feel?” she replied.

“I… You know how I feel, darling. Betrayed. But not by you. By the people, my people. I… trusted them. I have to trust those I am sworn to protect.”

“You know there are still criminals out there, Fred. Separatists. Thieves. It’s obvious someone would try to exaggerate a rumor. Many people want us down. And the policy we put in place after… well, you know,” she said, reminiscing the loss of their daughter through the memories of the beautiful young woman she had finally grew up to be, “didn’t suppress all of our opponents. You can kill a wolf pack, but as long as there are preys, other predators will come and take their place.”

“What are you going to do, then?”

“Leave.”

“You’re not serious?!”

“I certainly am. Listen, if those who spread those canards think they won, they will come out. There are times during which we can’t always stand in front of the adversary. Sometimes, we just need to let them think they win, and when they lower their guards enough, put them down once and for all.”

“Others will come. You said it,” noticed Frederic.

“True. But these people won’t be trouble anymore and we’ll be able to move on. Isn’t it the most important?”

“It is, Arianna,” he admitted, head low.

He walked to the window. In the sky, the moon had risen behind the stars. He sighed, knowing that all outside could see it, as he did. Arianna came by his sides, and put a hand on his arm, searching an unsaid question in his sorrowful eyes.

“I just… I don’t know if I can let you go, Ari. I would be alone,” he finally said.

“I’ll be back, Fred. It’s only while these rumors calm down and you silence those who mock us. Then I’ll come back. I’ll never be far away.”

“Do you think our daughter is watching the sky tonight?” he asked, lifting his head to the stars.

“I’m sure she it… Wherever she is.”

“I hope too…” he said, lowering his head once more.

“Fred… When we’ll find her… have you thought of what you’ll want to do?”

“I… I think about it everyday. Hold her in my arms. Welcome her home. Imprison those who took her from us. Make her feel home, safe, loved. Secure the palace so it never happens again. Discover who she grew up to be. I… I want to know our daughter, Arianna… When will we have that chance? Will we ever have that chance?”

“I know we will. Have faith, Fred. We will find her. Or maybe, who knows? Maybe it’s her who will find us?” supposed Arianna with a warm smile.

“Maybe,” chuckled Frederic, allowing himself to lighten his mood.

Arianna stood on her tip-toes and gave him a kiss, before, slowly, retreating in their room. If she was going to leave, she would have to prepare some things first.

She took a case, one she had from her youth and was still virgin of any mark of royalty, and folded some clothes inside. They were simple clothes, to ride, or walk for a long time. She took a couple of weapons, blades and whetstone. You never know what nor who you could find on the road.

She didn’t actually know where she would go. Outside the castle, there was not many places she knew of. And the last she had discovered were still certainly watched by curious passersby. So Gothel’s Tower and cottage were out of the list. She could go to the Corona’s Wall, and stay some days in one of the strongholds. She would be safe too, would anyone learn of her presence there.

That night, she went to sleep as usual, next to the warmth of her husband. And yet, she felt cold. Was she doing the right thing? She already had too many secrets to keep.

Her daughter. Matthews, no, Tromus’ real identity. And now rumors trying to put her down. The latter wasn’t a secret, it was worse. Because everybody had heard of it. There was no use in trying to douse the fire before it spreads and burn everything anymore. It was too late.

Arianna couldn’t sleep. Not with her brain thinking a hundred thoughts a minute. So she left the bed, cradling Frederic in the covers as to not wake him up, and took her case. As silent as possible, she left their bedroom.

In the shadows of the corridors lighted by the stars and moon above, she could see her trotting silhouette while she went to the stables. Yet, somehow, it didn’t looked familiar. At the end of the main hall, with the hall in front of her and the lights of the night behind her, she saw not her silhouette. She clearly saw a curly horned silhouette with sharp fingers and claws. It was like standing behind her. She did a swift about-face with a defensive dagger in hand, and faced the window. There was no one behind her. Only the decorative over-polished armors and ceramic vases on pedestals, and the cold of the night infiltrating through the windows’ hinges.

“It’s nothing,” she whispered to herself. “Just an illusion. Come on, Arianna! You’ve faced bears and tigers! You can’t be scared of your own shadow!”

She resumed her walk, not minding a single look to the floor and her shadowy silhouette following her every movements.

At last, she was at the main door. She needed people to see her. Townsfolk from their windows, soldiers on their watch, cooks receiving stocks, anyone who could see her would help her plan.

The first thing to do was to slip into town, and leave the letters on the printer’s letterboxes. Usually, it was the common folk using them, to pass messages in the newspapers. Not tonight.

Then, in the shadows of the walls and yet noticeable enough from any window, she went back in the courtyard and the stables. A stable-boy saw her, and in the dim light of his lantern, recognizes her, yet said nothing.

She saddled a horse, and took it by the reins, walking by its side. As much as that plan of hers needed her to be seen, there was no need to wake the people up with a galloping horse on the cobblestones.

When she had arrived by the gate opening on the bridge, Arianna mounted the horse, and crossed the bridge. Clouds were hiding the moon now. She was riding blindly.

~ ~ ~

“Your Majesty?” started Matthews, joining king Frederic at a meeting after breakfast. “I haven’t seen the queen today. After what happened yesterday, is everything alright?”

“She’s fine, Matthews, she knows what she’s doing,” simply answered Frederic, not minding a single look to him.

“Your Majesty, the time is ill chosen. The canards will only spread faster.”

“Queen Arianna knows what she’s doing,” repeated calmly Frederic, taking a pause at each word.

“I hope you’re right then,” said Matthews. “If you don’t need me, I’ll be on my way.”

He retreated from the room, and didn’t hear the king muttering “it’s not you I need, you fool”.

Matthews went outside. He took a brown cloak to go in town, trying to listen to anything that could help him. If there was something Tromus had thought he’d do by arriving in Corona, it was magic, finding and destroying Zhan Tiri for all the years he realized only now he had suffered and endured without reason. Partaking in gossips and kingdoms affairs weren’t at all on his to-do-list.

People in town were talkative. Apparently, new information had been released through letters. Ah, yes, he remembered now, among all that was said the day before, Arianna had said she would write. Matthews paid for one of these papers, and read the letter printed on the front page.

The queen had written about leaving life to not suffer again. That was bad. With the magic he knew she had in her, that was bad. He had to find her. Would she do something, awake the dormant magic in her, the consequences could be catastrophic. For her directly as well as for what the people would say of her, after all that was already said all the while being totally fake.

There had to be something he could do. During all those weeks in Corona, he had became her adviser in kingdom matters and magic. This… whatever this topic really was about, however it had started, it wasn’t on his curriculum vitae. And yet, he knew he had to do something.

Tromus went to an inn, trying to change his mind a bit. Frederic trusted Arianna, he would trust her as well. Of course he trusted her. She had faced Gothel, and though she always humbly reminded that it was an accident, had put her down. Queen Arianna knew the ways of the world more than king Frederic could ever. If there was anyone in the royal family he knew who could do well out there, it was Arianna.

The inn was noisy. There was in the air a nice smell of coffee and cocoa. And alcohol too. Tromus ordered a hot chocolate, and sat at a table near a window. At the table right next to his, a woman was reading the press with a man. Though Tromus didn’t understand all they said, he got that they were happy of the news.

“That’s it,” said lady Caine. “The queen is gone. We find your goons, and take over.”

“My goons are in prison, lady,” replied Andrew.

“You don’t have a back-up team? And he calls himself a strategist… My, you’re really not fitting in this world.”

“I never said I was a strategist. I’m a Separatist!”

“Yeah, shout that again and bring the guards in here, go on. Be careful if you want to hold a sword again,” she warned, nearing her dagger to his four-fingered right hand.

He took his hand back to him, holding it to his chest. Matthews watched them attentively, and listened as well. Though they were mostly whispering, a little twinge to the magic in the room allowed him to hear them as though there was no fuss in the room.

He was far from having the entire context of the conversation though. The woman was cryptic, and her tone and attitude spoke more than her words. Revenge. That was what she wanted. Over the kingdom it seemed. But for what? That Tromus couldn’t know right now. He shouldn’t even bother.

He knew he should leave the inn, go to the king, warn him of this overhead conversation, while also preparing himself to go find the queen. If there was something the magic in her was, it was unpredictable.

Not much was known about residual magic, if it even was what she held. Truly, it could be a totally different magic, Tromus knew that. Yet if there was one thing that was certain about the magic she held, it was that it responded to grand emotions. Which fear and stress were. She could very well be in mortal danger as he thought about it.

And while he drank his hot chocolate, he still listened to the two persons at the next table.

“I want the kingdom!” argued the man.

“And I want revenge. And I have the weapon here, so listen to me!”

Though they were arguing in whispers, it was a very heated argument.

“The king took my dad from me. Unless there’s a way to free him, we take the kingdom from the king.”

“Your dad?” repeated the man, laughing. “Seriously, your only drive is your old man? My whole country has fallen in the claws of Corona!”

“That was centuries ago and there was barely any bloodshed,” loudly sighed lady Caine. “Why didn’t I leave you with Stalyan!? If only I knew who took that damn princess, I’d squeeze the life out of them!”

The man went silent a short moment.

“So you’ve lost your father after the king put all criminals in jail? Finally we find a common ground! ‘Cause my people disappeared too that night!”

“The Red Night?” guessed Tromus from his table.

He had read of Corona’s history, on the strong advice of Arianna, so he could stay in court as historian as well as her adviser.

“Mind your own business, old man,” warned lady Caine, throwing her dagger to his table, close to the mug.

“Hey!” shouted the innkeeper from behind the bar. “Mind the furnitures or it’s out! The three of you!”

She took her dagger back, sending a death glare to Tromus.

“You want revenge on the one who took princess Rapunzel,” he said, as Caine had turned her back to him.

“What do you know?” she asked him.

Andrew was keeping an eye on both of them. The air was tense between them.

“I know things. The one who took the princess… I knew her. But someone got ahead of you.”

“You know who,” she stated.

“That I do. We could maybe speak somewhere with less ears around,” he suggested.

He stood up, went to pay at the bar, and left the inn. Inside, lady Caine left as well, leaving a tip on the table, while Andrew followed her.

“Speak,” she ordered Tromus in the streets.

“Not yet. We’re in town. Follow me.”

As they spoke, they never looked at each other, walking next to one another, talking in the air for whoever had their curious eyes on them.

“Why spread false rumors?” asked Tromus while they arrived at the main gate by the bridge.

“Not every war requires bloodshed.”

“That’s the blood of the people you’ll shed with those schemes of yours,” he warned them.

“As if you cared… Who are you exactly?”

“I don’t know who you are, hence, you don’t need to know who I am. Follow me.”

They had reached the other side of the bridge, and he led them to the main path in the forest, leading to Old Corona and Corona’s Wall. Now that he knew what he was looking for, Zhan Tiri’s magic resting inside queen Arianna, he knew where to go. He walked more quickly, keeping the pace of a walking horse. From ahead on the path appeared a horse. The one Arianna had taken to leave. It was galloping fast, back to the island.

Arianna was nearby, Tromus knew it, she was before Corona’s wall, that was for sure. He walked forward, determined.

“Hey! You’re gonna slow down or keep on your bloodhound game!” shouted Caine, who had been distanced easily.

Tromus ran at the question, and stormed ahead. He could sense the magic. They were close.

“Oh no you don’t! Andrew!” yelled lady Caine.

The Separatist ran and caught up to Tromus in no time. The tackle on the muddy ground of the forest was much harmful to the older man.

“You don’t understand! We have to go this way!” he shouted back to them.

“Old man, I’m not playing your game anymore,” said lady Caine. “You got information? Tell us. Or I’ll be the one to hurt you next. Trust me, I know where it hurts.”

A cloud masked the sun above. For a moment, cold spread around them. Tromus was still on the ground. If he wanted to escape, he had everything near him. Magic. Even forget-me-nots at hand reach to erase the whole discussion. Yet he let them do as it pleased them. There were times when raw strength and steel were mightier than magic.

Andrew grabbed his hair and lifted his head. He only laughed at Tromus’ hurt expression.

“I know this guy,” he said to Caine. “He’s the queen’s new adviser. Saw him a couple of weeks ago when I came in town. Guess he only wanted to shut us up, hey, that’s what you want, man?!”

Tromus didn’t answer, for he saw behind his assailant a shadow he thought he’d never see again. Cold went all over him, and it wasn’t the work of Caine’s blade nearing his face.

The shadow came out of the woods, dark, tall, with fingers like claws and thorns on its head like horns. And a dress of royal purple fabric shredded on the skirt.

With a swift blow in the branches, the shadow took them all three away from the road, and darkness settled around them.


	11. To save a kingdom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After last chapter's cliffhanger, let's have some fluff, shall we? ^^

Far from Corona, the ferry arrived at the little coastal village right on schedule. The caravan embarked, and they set sail. The team were the only travelers. Seemed very few people even cared about crossing the sea in this time of the year. Usually, there could be about ten persons, told them the sea captain. The crossing was set to take two whole days, from the morning of the first day to the morning of the third.

They had left early, awakened when the boat’s horn called the dockers to help unload the hold. The caravan had approached, the sea captain skeptical about loading such big vehicle, yet, the chiming of coins had easily convinced him to accept the team on board, with the heavy caravan and the horses. Even if it would take longer, they weren’t leaving anyone nor anything on the coast.

The boat’s horn resonated again in the calm of the sea as they set sail. The sun wasn’t up yet. It came from behind the sea, far away on the horizon, from even further away where they were headed.

As the night left slowly, the team was in the main cabin, the captain on front at the helm, and behind him, the brazier and around it some wooden benches. All the humans were there, with Pascal and Owl warming their scales and feathers. Ensis Wiseblade had retracted in his Mindtrap, as to not scare the captain, who like many, would never want to deal with magic, and would quickly jump over the railing at the sight of a ghost rather than to bring his passengers at destination.

The sun rose in the sky, and the marine air smelled good of iodine as fishes leaped from the waves. It was a good day to be out at sea. Rapunzel was the first to leave the cabin and go lean on the railing outside, before seeing the sign saying no to. So she leaned on the wall, breathing that pure air that she didn’t know she had missed all those years in the Tower. This was freedom.

Though, after eighteen years only seeing the forest, the birds flying, this environment was strangely appealing, and still, frightening all at once. As if she could let herself slip in the water, let the currents carry her, and it would either bring her somewhere safe and sound or drown her once and for all.

She heard someone walking by, and titled her head to see Cassandra coming. She leaned on the wall by her side, her head resting on Rapunzel’s shoulder.

“Come to think of it,” said Cassandra pensively, “we’ve been free from my mother for months now and never really got any time truly to ourselves. There were always the others… even in the caravan,” she commented with a sigh.

Rapunzel hummed, looking at the sea. Then, she turned her head, and landed a kiss on the top of Cassandra’s hair. She heard her giggle a little, and though she couldn’t see the pink blush on her cheek, it was here.

“What was that for?” Cassandra asked with a slightly suggestive voice.

“You were at lips range.”

“Is that so?”

She shifted on one foot and faced Rapunzel. Both were grinning at the other, something unsaid was told. Rapunzel bit her bottom lip for a second, and lifted her hand to cup Cassandra’s cheek. When she released her lip, Cassandra caught it in hers, while her arm slowly slithered around her beloved’s back and neck to hold her tightly. She could feel on her own back and head Rapunzel’s hands starting to massage her scalp.

In a slow dance, hands slid on clothes, grasping, stroking, as though trying to rip the fabric away, and yet, never able to do so. Lips parted only to be caught back, bitten gently and affectionately.

Cassandra was the first to part and take her breath for a short moment, before posing a dozen of light kisses on Rapunzel’s sun-kissed flesh, jaw and chin, and soon to her neck, sensible, and ticklish under the collar of her shirt. At Cassandra’s touch, Rapunzel giggled and her head knocked on the wood. Not much, yet enough for her to hope no one inside noticed the sound, or was even hearing them for what matters. She didn’t care to imagine what they would think of them.

Cassandra kept kissing her cheek and upper neck with touches light as down. There was this temptation in the air around them, this thin limit between what they had done so far, holding on to each other, cuddling and kissing… and that little voice in their mind taunting them what to do next. It was all very new for both of them, all so seducing to simply let go and succumb.

“Cass…” Rapunzel whispered with a loving voice she hadn’t heard escape her lips yet.

Cassandra’s hands were roaming on her shirt, tugging the fabric in her back, lower, lower… lower than she had ever dared before, nearly at the hem of her pants. Rapunzel could feel her lips gently flying on her skin, tracing a path down her neck, attempting at times to get lower on her soft skin… skin so sensible and ready to welcome her loving touch… Ready…

It was… pleasing, so, so tempting to let her do her work, and yet…

Cassandra stopped when she felt Rapunzel tense against her. Her hands on her back and head had stopped massaging. She lifted her head, her glance reaching to Rapunzel’s.

“Did I… Did I do something wrong?” she tried, unsure she hadn’t guessed correctly her reactions.

“No, I, you’re doing perfectly, Cass…” muttered Rapunzel, averting her gaze. “I love you and I love what you’re doing… It’s just… I thought I’d be… but… I’m not sure I’m really ready to go further… Maybe not now…”

“No, it’s- it’s my fault,” Cassandra blamed herself, as she stood up from her crouched position against Rapunzel, leaving her more space against the wall. “I… I was caught in the moment… I could have asked you. Should’ve.”

She took her scarf off, and put it around Rapunzel’s neck, wet of her doing and cold by the wind of the sea. She smiled a bit, a shadow of regret in her eyes. Her hand reached for Rapunzel’s cheek, and she leaned into it, kissing her palm, her loving eyes resting on Cassandra.

“I’m… I’m sorry, I thought it was what I wanted…”

“Raps, don’t be sorry. I’m not sure I’m ready either. We just… well, felt free. There’s no need to rush if you don’t feel like it. If we don’t feel like it. We’ll wait, Raps, as long as we need,” Cassandra promised. “I don’t want to force you. Too much had already been forced onto us. I should’ve asked you.”

With her free hand, she took Rapunzel’s hand in hers, and held it tightly, their fingers intertwining slowly.

“Thank you,” said Rapunzel, leaning on Cassandra’s chest for a hug.

Their warm breathes on each other shoulder’s calmed the slight tension, and when they parted, it was silent, yet they knew, both could wait, it meant trust. And after being lied to so long by their only family, they couldn’t bear the thought of lying to one another. Trust was everything.

Finally, someone appeared from behind the wall. Varian.

“We’re making soup. You’re hungry?” he asked them, apparently oblivious to what had happened.

“We’re coming,” said Cassandra, with a small laugh at the impromptu arrival.

“I’m right behind you,” said Rapunzel, “just staying here a couple minutes more.”

“As you wish, milady,” replied Cassandra, bowing slightly while going, her fingers leaving a warm trace on Rapunzel’s.

She saw Varian and Cassandra go back inside the cabin. Outside, it was nicely warm, with the sun resting on her skin like a lover’s kiss. She sighed, and let herself fall on the floor, watching the waves jump to the boat and splash on the wood.

In two days, they would be back on land. Rapunzel didn’t know how she would feel then. Would she want to go back to the water, or stay on land and never ever speak of boat again? Everything has changed in her eighteen years old daily routine. She wasn’t sure what she would like or dislike anymore.

Ahead, there was still only water, for miles and miles around. It even started to feel a little depressing. Maybe it was time to go inside with the others. She put a hand on the wall to help herself stand up, putting the other in front of her, and another hand caught her and helped her stand up.

“Thanks Cass,” she said, before even seeing the one who helped her.

Yet at the sight, Rapunzel gasped, and retracted her hand in the second.

“What do you want?” she asked at the one before her.

“Your help,” answered Adira. “You hold a power, Sundrop. A power capable of grand things. You could do so much more than just waiting here that a boat reaches the coast and stay with your little friends.”

“Whatever you want me to do, I won’t do it.”

“You’re more than what everyone tells you, Sundrop,” said Adira.

The tall two-faced woman had moved, and was now standing in front of Rapunzel, stuck between her and the wall.

“Come with me, and I’ll help you discover all you can do,” she offered.

“I won’t! Stay away from me and stay away from my friends!”

Rapunzel tried to slide away, and managed to leave the trap she had been put into.

“You’re losing yourself, here,” insisted Adira. “I can make you a hero. A hero for the Dark Kingdom. You just have to trust me.”

“I don’t trust you!”

“Just think about it. You’re going to take a long time to reach the Dark Kingdom. Many things can happen during all that time. Or, you can join me.”

“You tried to kill us in the canyons! Why would I even trust you!?”

“Kill? No, you were never in mortal danger,” she reminded, reminiscing the river going away long ago.

“You threw a whole river to us! We could have drown!”

“Yet you didn’t. Think about what you can do, Sundrop. The Dark Kingdom needs you. You don’t realize it yet, but you need it too.”

“It had done well without me for centuries. Don’t tell me it can’t survive another few months.”

“That’s the thing, Sundrop. The Dark Kingdom is surviving. Only you can revive it. Come with me. And we can save this land.”

Rapunzel stood her ground, emboldened by Cassandra’s fiery spirit flowing with her, firmly decided to not let Adira win.

“And if I refuse?” she asked, more of a taunt than a real question.

“I can protect you,” Adira assured, though not answering.

“My friends are already protecting me. And they’re doing well. As long as you’re not here,” retorted Rapunzel, her hands slowly forming fists.

“They can’t protect you much if they’re not here anymore. Listen, I don’t have all the answers you’ll looking for. But I know one thing. You, Sundrop, are the key to saving my kingdom.”

“I… Please, stop asking me, I won’t come with you.”

“Very well. But as long as you stay here with this caravan of yours, a kingdom is dying.”

“It’s not. Quirin told us what happened. It’s been dead for years.”

Adira lunged forward, her sword unsheathed. At her sudden movement, Rapunzel fell backward, catching the railing in extremis.

“Mind repeating that? My kingdom is not dead. And you can help me be sure it never dies. Quirin never came back. He doesn’t know how things are out there. He has seen nothing. I have. What he saw was years ago. It became worse. Think of what you can do, Sundrop. Don’t make the wrong choice.”

Against the black glistening blade, Rapunzel gulped. She knew she could never betray her friends. No, they were going to the Dark Kingdom, as one, and neither Adira or anyone could stop them, with words nor violence.

“Choose wisely,” strongly advised Adira, taking her sword back.

Rapunzel put a hand on her neck. It was unharmed, and yet, she had trouble breathing for a moment. She looked around. Adira wasn’t there anymore. She had to be, though. She had to be somewhere on this boat. They were in the middle of the sea. She would come back. And then what? What to choose?

To change her mind, she finally went inside the cabin, where Cassandra handed her a bowl of soup warmed by the brazier. Varian was looking at a map charting the sea, Xavier, talking to the captain, and Eugene, sleeping on the bench. She ate the soup, trying to forget Adira. It was fishes, bought to the fishermen of the coastal village before setting sail. She had never ate fish soup. It was nice. Not her favorite, yet nice.

After lunch, she imitated Eugene on her own bench, and laid against the wood, with Cassandra’s thigh as pillow under her head and her friend’s hands caressing her hair. Her mind was filled with what Adira had told her earlier. She couldn’t abandon her friends like that and follow a stranger. And yet… There were things they had discovered that Adira still ignored. Would telling her change anything?

And Rapunzel had been afraid of the world for so long in her tower, why still suffer this fear? Was the world still as frightening as before? No, it wasn’t. She had seen a face of the world that was wonderful.

Maybe she could help a friend in need. Friend. Was Adira really her friend after all? That was… still undecided.

She could tell Adira what they knew about the Moonstone and Ensis. About Eugene. Maybe then Adira would consider admitting things weren’t as dire as she thought they were. Once she knows the founder of the order she’s in, and the heir of her kingdom are, well, not completely alive for one, maybe she’d reconsider threatening Rapunzel. Or so, she deeply hoped.

Her nap took hours, like the one of the others around. Only Xavier and Varian stayed awake during the rest of the day. One because he was sharing legends with the sea captain, the other because he was thinking and designing a device that would allow the boat to speed up, on the condition that it wouldn’t break on the first try.

At the end of the afternoon, they went all outside, to enjoy the open air. Rapunzel kept a watchful eye everywhere, and yet, Adira was nowhere to be seen. She could be sneaky, Rapunzel could well grant her that. But she knew the warrior was there, somewhere. She couldn’t just have imagined their confrontation earlier after Cassandra went inside the cabin. Cassandra…

Rapunzel walked to her, who was watching the sea surrounding them, and took her hand in hers. They leaned silently on each other’s shoulder, while the waves were leaping gently just above their feet. It was peaceful, there, and no one was telling them what to do, what to accept or refuse, as long as they were there, together, aside from the group.

Cassandra was right. It has been a long time since they had any real time to themselves. They had left the Tower, been on the run two, maybe three days, then went in town and learned more in a couple of months than all they had ever learned in eighteen and twenty-two years with Gothel. Then, there was this journey, this chance to prove that Mother didn’t control their lives anymore, and yet, that she had planned all along, in her own way.

Even short moments, stolen glances, stolen hand holding, it never lasted long enough. But now on the boat, they were at the speed of the wind, and they had all the time they wanted. At last. Even if it meant try to speed things up maybe too fast between them. It would take them time. A smile twisted its way on Rapunzel’s mouth, remembering that moment earlier. She sighed. No, she wasn’t yet ready, yet she had loved how spirited Cassandra had been. At the thought, she bit her lower lip and nuzzled her head even closer to Cassandra’s neck, who held her in her arms, like they always loved to do.

The sun started to fall behind the horizon, behind the boat. They came back inside, and warmed the soup again, eating dinner at the music of legends and tales from the sea. Seemed like the captain of the ferry was like Xavier, a collector of stories. And stories, to forget the sometimes heavy reality, was all they needed right now.

At night, the team went to sleep in the caravan. Eugene and Varian played heads or tails in order to know who would sleep on the top bunk bed that night, while Xavier set himself a comfortable space in the room at the back. Pascal and Owl were with him, as this little living room still had more space than the other two smaller bedrooms. Rapunzel was the first to be in bed, while Cassandra was still outside, filling her lungs with that vivifying marine air that she wouldn’t meet again until a long time, until, certainly, coming back to Corona.

When she came back to the caravan, and stepped into the little room she shared with Rapunzel, she found her on her side, back to the door, hiding her wide open worry eyes. The conversation with Adira was still haunting her, and yet Cassandra knew nothing of it.

“Goodnight, Raps,” she said, sliding under the cover, ready to sleep.

Rapunzel replied with a silent grumble.

“Raps,” said Cassandra, thinking her silence had to do with her actions from earlier that day, “I’m sorry, for this morning… I really should’ve asked you and…”

“It’s okay,” Rapunzel cut her excuse. “It’s okay, Cass. You thought… Just… Hold me tight, please…”

“Anything for you, Raps.”

She turned behind her under the cover, and slid her hand on Rapunzel’s side, holding her from behind. Her face was tucked into Rapunzel’s braided hair, that she seldom unbraided these days, in the warmth of her neck and the scent that was so her, so fresh and free, with now a little smell of iodine.

If Cassandra had to describe anything peaceful, this could be what she found the more peaceful in her whole life. Holding the one she loved, feeling her warmth against her, in this night so calm, on this boat so alone on the sea, with only people she knew she could trust with them. This night was a night she would cherish a long time.

At dawn, the sun piercing its rays through the round window awakened them slowly. Stretching as her head was still cloudy with sleep, Rapunzel’s glance froze at a shadow she now knew perfectly outside the window. Adira. It spooked her, and she jumped on the bed, waking up Cassandra with an unintentional blow to the arm.

“Ouch! Raps… What’s happening?” she asked with a hoarse sleepy voice.

“Err… Nothing, just something I thought I saw through the window.”

“We’re on the water. There’s nothing out there, Raps… Well, unless the boys know nothing about privacy, but by now, I doubt it.”

“Yeah it was nothing. Just, a shadow. Must have been a bird.”

“Maybe. Well,” she said with a long yawn, “now that we’re awake, let’s get something to eat, shall we?”

“We shall,” accepted Rapunzel.

Cassandra slid outside of the door, and held her hand to Rapunzel, who took it with a smile to help her come down. They walked side by side to go to the cabin, where the smell of the warmed fish soup was escaping the open windows.

A shadow ran over them. Rapunzel froze. But it was only Owl, welcoming Cassandra by landing on her shoulder. She greeted her feathery friend with a gentle pat on the back. He had a little fish in his beak, already savoring his breakfast.

They took some soup, and the journey mirrored the day before, laying on the couches, doing small talk to pass the time, playing a board game or two, watching the sea outside, observing a pod of dolphins swim through a spyglass… The day went on like this, so much Rapunzel nearly forgot about Adira. It wasn’t bad after all. The Brotherhood member hadn’t show up of all day, and though she had to still be somewhere on the boat, she had to stay away as long as Rapunzel was with her group.

She didn’t understand why the warrior didn’t want to take the others with her. Did she fear them? Frankly, Rapunzel didn’t think someone like Adira could even fear anything for what matters.

In the late afternoon, she decided to walk a bit outside, see the sunset, and maybe paint it. There was so many things worth painting on this journey. So she went back to the caravan, and took her painting stuff, sketchbook and paintbrushes. But when she had them in hand, and turned around to go sit near the stern, Adira was behind her. Her arms opened and her stuff fell, only to be caught at mid-air by the Brotherhood knight.

“Careful, you wouldn’t want to see any of these broken,” she stated.

“What are you doing here?”

“Have you thought of my proposition?”

“Yes… No. I can’t leave my friends. I trust them more than I could ever trust you. I won’t come with you.”

“I won’t force your hand. But I want you to make the right decision, Sundrop.”

“The right decision for who? You? Or me?”

“For a kingdom in need of saving.”

“I am just a tool for you to save your kingdom, aren’t I?”

Adira backed away, offended by such assumption, and yet, keeping her two-faced expression as neutral as ever.

“You are certainly not, Sundrop,” she assured.

“I have been called Flower for years by someone who only cared about the power I hold. You call me Sundrop, and tell me of grand destinies, heroic acts I could achieve with this same power. My name is Rapunzel. And I don’t follow anyone’s order. Now leave me be.”

“Think about what you’re doing… Rapunzel.”

Saying her name in lieu of her nickname sounded like torture to the knight.

“Think about how you’re treating me, Adira.”

“Is everything okay, Raps? I’m hearing voices,” asked Cassandra’s voice from behind the caravan.

Rapunzel turned her head toward her voice, but when she looked back where Adira was, she was gone. She hadn’t gotten the time to tell her about Ensis nor Eugene’s supposed lineage. It didn’t matter now. How could Rapunzel tell someone showing so little consideration to what she put others through?

“You’re okay, Raps?” asked Cassandra, who was now right by her side.

“I… You’re here, I’m okay,” she said, taking Cassandra’s hands in hers to level them for a gentle kiss on her knuckles.

“The captain said the winds and currents are good for us. That we should arrive not long before dawn.”

“That’s great! I can’t wait to set foot on land again!” shes exclaimed with a voice too high to not hide something.

“You’re sure you’re okay? You know you can tell me everything, Raps… If it’s what I did yesterday or…”

“You’re fine, Cass, it’s not you.”

“Right… You wanted to paint the sunset?” she asked, noticing the painting tools.

“Oh, yes! Actually, yes, I’m going to paint the sunset. Do you want to come with me?”

“Well, Xavier is telling legends to the captain, and Varian and Eugene are comparing their Flynn Rider headcanons. I’ll stay with you, they’re all boring.”

“Cass! None of them is boring! They just have different hobbies than you and me. And Xavier’s legends are nice! He lived through most of them after all.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. You know I’m less fond of stories than you, Raps. I’m more into things that are earthbound.”

“Well, come with me and I’ll sun-bound you,” playfully said Rapunzel while trotting with her sketchbook, leaving Cassandra to take the paintbrushes.

They sat in front of the setting sun, warm and pink, still above the purple of the clouds high in the sky, above the thick line of deep blue right above the black sea.

Rapunzel took her sketchbook, but when she opened it, papers flew away. With Cassandra, they managed to catch them all, though, what was intriguing were the slashes on them. All were like clawed.

“Whoa, that’s weird,” commented Rapunzel, looking at the ripped sheets.

“Not me,” Cassandra defended herself right away, “my daggers are always in their sheaths.”

“I wasn’t even suspecting you… But that’s weird. Well, who knows? Maybe it ripped on something when I took it,” supposed Rapunzel with a shrug. “What matters is that I can still draw on it… And now before the sun is gone for today!”

Cassandra handed her the paints and brushes, and she quickly started to put on paper what her eyes saw. And though, later that night, she wasn’t finished, the drawing was all she wanted to get. The vibrant colors, and on the side of the page, Cassandra, leaning her head on her knees, looking at Rapunzel, at the artist and close friend, so close both knew they were no more friends. The bond they shared was so much more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: what is going on in Corona?
> 
> Okay, so, this story is mainly finished on the writing part, there are only minor corrections and the dreaded end of the epilogue to check. I might decide for the next chapters to publish two at once. Haven't decided yet which chapters, or even if I'll do it, we'll see.


	12. An unlikely alliance against a greater evil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ready to embark for Arianna’s Tangled Adventures?
> 
> In which happens what should happen whenever there’s a problem: sit down and talk it out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early title of this chapter: "Understanding your enemies is a key to war"  
> Alternate possible title: "Keep your friends close, your enemies closer"

In the dark of the forest in Corona, a battle was waging between two forces. Neither would let the other win. On one side, stood lady Caine and Andrew, daggers in their hands. On the other side, stood what was dressed like queen Arianna, and yet, looked in nothing like her. Between them, Tromus on the ground was shouting for them all to stop. He knew his attackers could hear him, but would they listen?

“Stop fighting! Stop fighting! I beg you!”

A large clawed hand slashed through the air and threw Caine and Andrew fly in the forest over meters.

“Please, your Majesty,” pleaded Tromus, “I know you’re in there. You received the Sundrop. I know you can fight it… Whatever this is… Fight it! Free yourself! Please!”

For a fraction of second, the all-black eyes turned into white sclerae, that left almost immediately. The horns on the head of who stood before Tromus were unmistakable. But… how?

He fell backward, as the creature approached. There had to be something he could do. A magical trap maybe. But that would take some time. He didn’t have time.

“Magic… Ssssundrop… Magic,” hissed the creature, head up, looking in the air.

That was his chance. Yet, someone acted before Tromus, and Caine knocked it out with a fallen branch.

“What the heck was that thing?” she panted, muddy from the fall in the wet leaves of the forest.

“I fear that’s queen Arianna,” said Tromus in a whisper, standing up.

“That’s not,” retorted Caine. “The queen is many things, but magical creature, she’s not.”

“I wish I could agree with you… But look by yourself.”

He pointed the large dark body dressed like the queen, as it became smaller by the second, and took back the appearance they knew her.

Tromus turned around, and patted Caine’s shoulder to get her attention.

“Can you… give her something? Anything?”

“Will do,” she said firmly, shooing his hand off her shoulder.

Caine took her cloak off, and walked to the queen. Arianna was trying to take the shredded fabric back around her, not understanding how, one second she was on the road galloping to the Corona Wall, and the second, she was there, in the forest, with her clothes destroyed and people she only knew through wanted posters around her.

“Thanks,” said Arianna with a small voice, when she felt the cloak on her shoulders.

She looked around, and found Tromus, who was still looking anywhere but to her.

“Anyone care to explain to me what happened?” she asked aloud, her voice husky.

“I might have a beginning of explanation,” started Tromus. “But I never faced anything like that and I hope I’m not wrong in what I will tell you.”

“Go on,” Arianna ordered in this dire situation.

Around them, Caine was listening. Any information could only help her cause. As for Andrew, he would still have to be able to stand up from his back thrown unto a tree’s trunk. He wasn’t too badly hurt, yet it would take him time before he could run as well as before.

“Your Majesty,” sighed Tromus, turning around to face her, “we know you hold two magical powers in you. Part of the Sundrop that healed you when your daughter was born. And residual magic from Zhan Tiri, that you certainly received when your daughter was conceived. And, from what I saw today, all I thought I knew about Zhan Tiri might be a total lie.”

“Who’s that Zhan Tiri?” asked Caine. “She a witch? That witch you’re said to have killed, hey, honey?”

“I didn’t… I did, but it wasn’t Zhan Tiri,” Arianna replied, still very confused.

Lady Caine laughed at the hesitation, and yet confirmation.

“Good to know all I said around wasn’t all lies then.”

“Please,” said Tromus, “this is no time for that. Arianna, you changed. Transformed. Into what I know is Zhan Tiri.”

“But I’m not her!” shouted Arianna, taking a reflex defensive step back.

“I know you’re not. But maybe what we call Zhan Tiri was never a person. But a magic itself.”

“You lost me, old man. What’s that all about?” checked Caine. “Tell me it’s not all magic, ‘cause I’m not dealing with all that creepy stuff.”

“What transformed the queen seemed to be a magic hunting other forms of magic. It’s hungry. It’s looking for anything powerful. Like the Sundrop. I don’t know what changed for that residual magic to awake only now, your Majesty, but I do know that this is bad news.”

“Tell me something I don’t know, Tromus,” sharply ordered Arianna.

“Of course. It’s only theories, but from what I understand, this residual magic of Zhan Tiri you possess awakened recently. Maybe because it was its time, maybe because you had found the Sundrop in your daughter, maybe because of my spell that didn’t work… It could be anything.”

“Hold on a minute, darling,” cut him Caine. “You found the princess?”

Arianna tried to argue, but her mouth was dry and she couldn’t say a word. There was water in the air. Tromus took some, an adroit shift of the hand and he put in a skin fresh water from the forest. He handed her the skin and she drank greedily. When she was finished, she gave him the empty skin back, and faced lady Caine.

“I found my daughter, yes, I did. But she’s gone.”

“So you know who took her eighteen years ago.”

“I do.”

“Lead me to them. I got a revenge to take.”

“It’s too late.”

“I see. You did the job. Didn’t know you could get your hands dirty, honey.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Oh, and why that? That’s the name your Freddie gives you, that’s it?”

“Please. I’m not in the mood nor the shape for word games.”

“Why do you want revenge?” asked Tromus behind her.

“As if you hadn’t listened to us in the inn, grandpa. My dad was taken because her kid was taken. Her kid is back? I want my dad back. If I don’t, I’m taking her life,” Caine explained, her dagger pointed to Arianna.

“By threatening with revenge the person who took the child? And now the person who killed the kidnapper?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“I can see… what I can do for your father,” said Arianna, still breathing with difficulties. “But it won’t be immediate.”

“It’ll will have to suffice. I guess…”

“Hey! That wasn’t the deal!” shouted the broken voice of Andrew, down near the tree he had fallen upon.

The man himself was not as broken as his voice, but close. He pushed himself from the ground with his arms, and with a fallen branch, managed to get to the others, neither of them minding helping a pawn nor an enemy.

“It wasn’t the deal,” he repeated angrily.

“The deal was for me to get my revenge for my father,” reminded him Caine. “I got no revenge for his imprisonment, but if I can make sure I’ll get my father back, I can deal with that.”

“Yeah, and you promised you’d help my people fight.”

“Oh please, you really fell for that? I don’t care about you Separatists!”

“Could we forget our differences for a moment?!” pleaded Tromus. “The most important matter right now is to help queen Arianna with this magic poisoning her. I don’t care who promised what. But if that magic, if Zhan Tiri manages to take over the queen, everyone is in danger, no matter what you fight, or who you fight for! Magic doesn’t care about politics and revenges!”

“Do you even know what we’re fighting, old man?” checked Caine.

“We’ll find. I’m sorry you got into this mess, but now, I hope you understand we’re in this together.”

“No way!” shouted Andrew. “I’m not staying near anything magical. Saporians deal with science, not magic! You gotta do that without me!”

“You’re gonna run?” taunted him Caine. “On what legs? You can barely walk.”

“I can… still… fight!” he retorted, more by pride than truth.

“Stubborn,” commented Caine, before turning to Arianna. “Okay, let’s a make a deal. We help you find what’s that in you, and you free my dad. And if you get any idea of not helping my dad, I’ll end you before that curse of yours does.”

“I can’t… can’t answer for now,” whispered Arianna.

“She needs time,” said Tromus to Caine and Andrew. “Now is not the time to make deals. Follow us and help us or leave and bring chaos… just choose something. As for now, whatever you choose, we need a place to think.”

“The Wall,” said Arianna, “I was going to the Wall.”

“Then let’s go,” said Caine.

Tromus moved to support Andrew, fidgeting with magic around to help him walk better so he wouldn’t have to support him anymore soon. They had all stopped talking, and now the air was heavy above them.

Were any of them doing the right thing? Arianna had chosen her plan for the people who mocked her and Frederic to face justice, and now, they were helping her. To what end? She preferred to not think about it right now. They could be helping, genuinely wanting her to get better, or simply to get information or a wealthy ransom… Everything was possible.

To go to the Corona Wall, they walked between cultivated areas, far from the roads. From afar, they looked like two persons seriously injured and two others helping, or protecting them.

While they were walking, Tromus’s mind never stopped searching, analyzing, theorizing, over what he knew, what he had seen, what all that could mean. He had an idea, one he hoped would be wrong, even though all that he had witnessed matched, from back when he knew, or thought he knew, Zhan Tiri centuries ago, to just that day in the forests of Corona with queen Arianna. But to free the queen would then be… something he preferred not to think too much about right now.

Till the Corona Wall, it would take them till night on foot. So they walked faster as night approached. Even renewed criminals like vengeful lady Caine and injured Separatist of Saporia Andrew, both skilled combatants, knew the night was a bad time to hope escape a fight brought onto them. Tromus lighted the way with a magical flame, one that would normally have made his followers run away for their lives. Though Andrew would gladly run away if it weren’t for his damaged legs.

Around midnight, they were at the nearest stronghold of the wall. Tromus in front of the group, helped queen Arianna climb the high stone steps, and knocked on the heavy wooden door. Trough the thickness, they couldn’t hear anything from the other side. It took several minutes of knocking before a soldier appeared and opened the spy-hole.

“Who’s there?” a loud voice asked.

“Queen Arianna of Corona! I command you to open this door,” ordered Arianna.

Her voice still hadn’t totally recovered. When the soldier looked at her suspiciously, for a moment he wanted to shoo them away, until she lowered the hood of Caine’s cloak on her head. And the soldier recognized her.

“Your Majesty! Enter, enter,” he said hastily, opening the heavy door.

But when he recognized the wanted criminal and the Separatist, whose faces where on every places where soldiers could be, he halted them.

“They’re with me,” said Arianna, earning a doubtful glance from the soldier. “Let them in,” she insisted.

“As you wish, your Majesty,” finally accepted the soldier, much reluctantly. “The commander of the wall is currently at the northern stronghold. Do you want me to inform him?”

“No. The less people know I’m here, the better. Lead us to a room where we can talk. In private. I want no one to interrupt us.”

The soldier seemed to consider this for a moment, but in the end, shook his head.

“I’m sorry, your Majesty, but I can’t. The commander has to be warned. Does the king know you’re here?”

“Do as you’re told, soldier,” ordered Arianna.

The soldier leaned to her ear, so no one else could listen.

“I’m doing this for your safety, your Majesty. I’ll send a pigeon to the commander.”

“And I command you, as your superior officer, to do none of this.”

“Your Majesty… These people are wanted and dangerous. I can’t let you do this.”

“Do anything and you’re dismissed from the army.”

“Are you certain this is wise?”

“I most certainly am,” confirmed the queen.

The soldier took a step back, and lifted his arm to show them the way.

Arianna came at Tromus’ side.

“Tromus, can you make him see the others differently?”

“That’s child’s play, of course, I can,” he laughed lightly, gathering in his hands enough magic to change the appearance of Caine and Andrew in the soldier’s memory.

The soldier guided the group to a room, one of the many council rooms in the Wall, where officers of old used to check the incoming goods and letters before accepting or refusing their entrance in the key part of the kingdom around the capital.

He opened a door, and invited the queen, her adviser and two diplomats to enter. At the title he gave them, Caine and Andrew were surprised, only for Tromus to thank the soldier and authorize him to leave them.

“No one will trouble us,” assured the royal adviser. “Take a seat.”

The others sat, Arianna taking the chair in the middle of the table, seat set for the most graded officer she was. Tromus sat by her side, while Caine and Andrew took place on the opposite side of the table.

“Have you thought about what happened to me?” asked Arianna.

“I haven’t stopped since it happened,” said Tromus.

“Why exactly are we here for?” asked Andrew, clearly annoyed before even the conversation could truly begin. “’Cause I ain’t friendly to Corona’s royalty. If there weren’t any magic business, I’d have your head brought at the castle on a spike by now!”

“You saw things that could harm everyone, within our borders and even outside,” explained Arianna, showing no fear at the menace. “Things that could hurt more than all the rumors and canards you’ve being spreading for the last couple of weeks. You chose to hurt us, but now, you will need to help us.”

“And we made a deal,” reminded lady Caine to the Separatist. “You’re welcome to leave, but you won’t go far on your own.”

“And I know you’re our enemies,” said Arianna. “But I choose to trust you, not because I am weak, or even think you genuinely want to help. But because none of us have the choice in this.”

“I mean,” precised Caine, “I’m in, as long as you don’t double-cross us and I don’t end up hanged. Him,” she said pointing Andrew, “I don’t care.”

The Separatist muttered a curse, but as Caine put her hand on her dagger, he stopped at once, and brought his nine fingers to his chest.

“If we could go back to the matter at hand…” said Tromus, “From what I understand, the residual magic the queen possesses is from Zhan Tiri. That, I have no doubt about it. I could recognize it anywhere. Before today, I thought that magic had been left by a magic user, who I knew as Zhan Tiri. Every magic user leaves residual magic, it was obvious to think that. And yet, what happened today is a game changer. Because no mage’s residual magic can ever take control of someone like it did to queen Arianna. This magic, we know it now, it spoke to us, it is after powerful magic. It’s parasitic in its own way.”

“A parasite?” repeated Arianna, intrigued and yet, fearing what that could imply.

“Yes. It seems to be feeding on magical energy, through a host, that you currently are, your Majesty. Zhan Tiri as I knew her might never have been only a mage.”

“I think I’m starting to understand,” said Arianna, shooting a quick glance to the two others who didn’t looked like they understood anything, “but I’m far from knowledgeable on magic as you are. And so are they.”

She showed him Caine and Andrew.

“I see… But even for me, I don’t really know parasitic magic. It’s said to be really ancient, nearly extinct. Some primordial magic that needed to use other magics to be able to survive. It’s actually very little documented.”

“So this parasite is after the Sundrop?” asked Arianna, trying to get the puzzle together.

“I think so, it muttered the name of the Sundrop when it possessed you in the forest. It seems it can change the appearance of the victim…”

At the word, Arianna cleared her throat.

“It’s the word,” shrugged Tromus. “Nevertheless, I think it is still very weak in you. You could take over rather quickly. It used the fact you’re dealing with stress, and tiredness in this period to emerge. All those years from the moment you’ve been in the mountains where the battle against Demanitus took place, you had that magic in you. I guess, finding your daughter, or my failed spell, awakened the magic of Zhan Tiri, and the parasite awakened as well.”

“If I hold this parasite, that is after the Sundrop, then what is in that prison Demanitus built?”

“That I don’t know for sure,” sighed Tromus. “Zhan Tiri, I knew that name as the name of a powerful mage. I suppose she had the parasite too. Was she after the Sundrop and Moonstone on her own accord, or because of the parasite, that I can’t tell. But I know that, from the moment she was able to transform in what you transformed as well, she was always more violent in her quest. It must have been the parasite.”

“Cut it out with the chit-chat! It’s boooooring to death!” complained Caine, leaning on the table like a melting pile of ice.

On the other seat, Andrew wasn’t showing much more interest in all that at all, tapping his four-fingered hand on the wood and looking outside the small loophole window.

“You want to punish us for the rumors, great, you’ve done a perfect job. Now, my part of the deal, free my dad, and I’m out, this is hell.”

“We’re only starting to understand,” reminded her Arianna. “I know you’re not supporting us, and even less willingly. But you put yourself there first. And I got to admit that I thank you for that. If I had been in the palace when this parasite took form, it would have been much worse than in the forest.”

“I concur,” added Tromus. “And we know that this parasitic residual magic that Arianna possesses since her trip in the mountains and is also partly in her daughter.”

“Rapunzel has that magic too?” asked Arianna, surprised.

“I suppose it is most logical,” said Tromus. “You and your husband conceived your daughter there, where the magic was. It is only logical that both of you received the parasite, same as both of you have part of the Sundrop. Though, from what I understood, your daughter holds a greater amount of the Sundrop’s magic than you.”

“But then, is there still a part of this parasite in the prison?” asked Arianna.

“In the Lost Realm? I hope so. Though, the host, that I’m not even sure I even knew who she was. Or is. It’s impossible to tell.”

“I just realized… Zhan Tiri, we now consider it a magical parasite, or is it the mage you once knew?”

“If we want to understand what we talk about, Zhan Tiri held the parasite,” Tromus nodded.

“So it needs a host to survive. But you told me that the Sundrop and Moonstone needed a host too, like the Flower or my daughter. Does that makes them parasites too? Is my daughter in danger?” asked Arianna, dreading the answer.

Tromus stayed thoughtful a moment.

“I’m not sure parasite is the right word for them. If we do consider the parasite and the mage Zhan Tiri as two different entities, well, the parasite could change completely the way a person think, I saw that with the witch, well, Zhan Tiri herself. But the Sundrop… I’m not sure. I’d say, it’s more like a symbiosis. Though I never met your daughter, so I could be wrong. As for danger… Your daughter has for sure the Sundrop, as do you, in greater quantity of magic than you, as you don’t have the same abilities. But I guess she holds part of the parasite too. Less or more than you, your Majesty? It’s impossible to tell without meeting her.”

“We have to find her. If that parasite emerged in me, it could have in her… right?”

“It could, or couldn’t… I don’t know,” admitted Tromus, beaten by so many unknowns.

“Where is that daughter of yours, darling?” asked Caine, her interest caught back by the perspective of a chase against Stalyan’s target.

“On her way to the Moonstone,” said Arianna immediately, her mind running.

“To the Moonstone?!” repeated Tromus, horrified. “But… If she has the parasite, and holds the majority of the Sundrop, and goes to the Moonstone… That would be catastrophic!”

“I led her to her doom…” realized Arianna, her glance blank.

“We have to get to them, then?” checked Andrew.

“At once!” confirmed Tromus.

“Say no more, I got a ride,” said the Separatist. “But before, let’s make a deal too.”

“The Saporians want lands?” nearly shouted Arianna, not at all in the mood for diplomacy. “You can get them. If this world survives magic. What is your ride?”

~ ~ ~

“I tell you,” said Lance. “We’re being followed.”

“Oh please, it’s been days. Find something else to say!” Stalyan begged angrily.

“We’re way ahead of Vardaros. We’re what? Near those canyons, right?”

“We took the road north. They’re no canyon here. We’re ahead of the canyons,” reminded him Stalyan, checking the map.

“Let’s set camp. If anyone is following us, they will have to stop as well. And there’s no town around. We’ll see.”

“It’s barely mid-day. We still have a lot of lands to cover, Lance. We can’t afford losing much time. My father’s maps say the Lost Sea is ahead. If we keep the pace, we should be there in less than a week. We’ll find a boat and cross it.”

“The Lost Sea?” repeated Lance, tipping thoughtfully his beard with his fingers. “Why does this name remind me of something?”

“Err… Maybe because of the prison barge of the Lost Sea? Come on, this is definitely not our boat. But we have to be careful. We’re arriving on roads coming from Ingvarr. They send a lot of people to the barge. We don’t want to be of them.”

She kicked her horse’s side with her heel and went on a faster trot. Lance followed suit. They were on a road with few people, and yet, it was one of the main roads from the far lands of Bayangor, south-east from where they were, after Ingvarr up to the north-east after Equis. This road was one of the few going to the Lost Sea and its infamous prison barge where the worse criminals in the Seven Kingdoms were rotting in hope of escaping without drowning.

Lance slowed his horse, putting some distance between him and Stalyan. He whistled, getting his attention on the birds and clouds above. A rustle could be heard behind him. He kept his whistling, distracting not himself, but his followers. As he had his head not looking at the ground ahead, a shadow ran by his side. That was his cue. He kicked the horse’s side and followed the little sparrow flying fast.

He caught the spy in no time.

“Ah ah! Gotcha!” he shouted victoriously, holding the spy in a solid bear hug.

“Let go of me!” shouted back the black-haired kid, debating vigorously.

“Hey! Lance! What’s that noise?” asked Stalyan, way ahead of him.

She turned back and saw. And laughed. So Lance was right. They were being followed. By two kids. She led her horse back to his, leaning on the mount’s neck.

“So… that’s our fierce opponents spying on us? Not much of a threat…” she commented. “You can let her go, Lance.”

As soon as he released the kid, she jumped on the ground. Not far behind, another kid, red-haired, was there.

“What are you kids doing here?” asked Lance, dismounting his horse.

“As if we’d tell you,” taunted him the black-haired little girl.

“I know who they are,” said Stalyan. “My dad’s new stealth asset. What’s your name girls? Kiera and Catalina, if I recall correctly. Hmm, that’s it? My dad sent you to spy on us, didn’t he?”

“Maybe… Maybe not,” singsonged Kiera.

“Listen kids, it’s dangerous out there,” said Lance. “You can’t be on your own. But I wouldn’t want you to go back to work with the Baron either…”

“Lance, whatever you’re thinking about, forget it,” directly said Stalyan.

“I’m just saying… If we want those kids to be safe, they should come with us.”

“This is a bad idea,” warned Stalyan.

Lance was about to answer, but a little hand tugged at his sleeve. It was the red-haired kid. He knelt to get at her height, and she leaned to his ear. Neither Stalyan nor the dark-haired kid heard what she said. Then, Lance stood back up, the kid in his arms.

“We’re taking them. They have nowhere else to go.”

“We’re already late, Lance! We don’t have time for that!”

“Oh really? And what do you think your fiance will say, when you’ll tell him you abandoned two kids in need on the roads?”

“Don’t do this.”

“Oh, but I will.”

“You got nothing else to do but threatening each other like this?” asked the dark-haired girl. “The Baron told us you’d be difficult to find… He’d be disappointed!”

“Don’t even try to mention my father again, you little brat!”

Stalyan tried to catch her, but the kid was fast. Now, it was Lance’s turn to laugh.

“Hey, let’s just get back on the road, shall we?” he suggested.

Lance helped the red-haired girl climb in front of his saddle, before sitting behind her, while Stalyan was still after the other kid. At last, one of them was on the other horse. But Stalyan was still on the ground.

“You got a name, kiddo?” asked Lance to the kid with him. “I didn’t hear Stalyan earlier.”

“I… Err…”

She hesitated, her voice small. She didn’t seem to talk much.

“I’ll call you Red. If you like it.”

She nodded. And he smiled. Both because the kid was calm and happy, more than she could ever be with the Baron giving orders, but also because now, Stalyan had managed to get on her horse, and hold the other kid with a rope.

“And I’m calling mine Angry,” she said, panting of all that running.

Lance chuckled and set his horse on a trot. Stalyan was right. They still had as lot of road to cross before getting to their common friend.


	13. Where roads part, new paths can save or doom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here, we'll see nearly all our teams, to set what's next...

The ferry crossing the Lost Sea arrived at the coast during the night. The caravan was unloaded, and the team stayed at the end of the little village until sunrise.

At break of dawn, they went back on the roads. Around them, black rocks pierced the ground over miles. There were more rocks there than they could ever count in all Corona. All were lying on the ground, pointing East. This was the way to follow.

And so for two days, they followed it, nearly non-stop. Until they had to stop. Fidella grew more and more tired. They were so eager to end this quest that the horses were enduring this need of never-ending journey. They finally set camp near a forest. On the other side of the road, there was a sign pointing to the town of Pincosta. After a consistent meal for everyone, horses included, they went to rest.

It was only when they hit their mattresses they realized how much they had missed sleep.

During the night, Cassandra stirred and moved. Usually, she felt under her arms and against her the warmth of Rapunzel. But that night, it was cold in their little bedroom in the caravan. At one moment, her arm fell on the other side of the bed, and, when she should normally hear a protest and someone awakened, there was no sound. That ended up to awake Cassandra, who pushed herself on her elbows to see Rapunzel. But there was no one.

She stood up, her head only a couple of centimeters before hitting the low ceiling, and opened the door. Outside, it was cold, and dark. She took her cloak thrown at the feet on the bed and left the cabin.

“Raps?” she called.

There was very little lights outside, only the stars, and the campfire Xavier was slumbering next to.

“Raps!” she called again.

Still no answer.

But, even in the dark, her eyes soon used to this lack of light saw a form in front of her.

“Rapunzel!” she called, running to the crouched form of her beloved on the ground. “Raps! Are you okay? You scared me…”

Rapunzel was there, her knees on the ground, her eyes looking nowhere with a glance of stupor, her hands fallen palms to the sky. But… In her hands, there was something different. They looked darker, more calloused, and scarred, with fingernails like claws.

“I… I don’t know what happened,” Rapunzel managed to say.

“I’ll go get Xavier,” immediately said Cassandra, rushing to the old man by the campfire.

Rapunzel couldn’t see anything near the campsite. She was in the total dark. Only her hands, unrecognizable, were in her field of sight.

Someone was coming. Light feet stepped behind her. She heard a sigh.

“I told you you were missing something, Sundrop. This will certainly worsen if you stay on your own.”

“You… knew that… would happen, Adira,” accused Rapunzel, her voice shaking.

“Nope. No idea this would happen,” affirmed Adira with her usual nonchalance, and Rapunzel couldn’t tell if she was lying or not. “So… you stay with those who can’t help you? Or go with someone you can help?”

“Help me…”

“Come with me.”

“Can’t move…”

Adira sighed. But she knew it wasn’t ill will, only impossibility to truly move, though she didn’t know what caused that paralysis. She put an arm under Rapunzel’s and lifted her on her feet, before going on the opposite direction of the campsite. Even limping, two persons could be faster than a whole group.

Cassandra came back, Xavier on her heels. Where Rapunzel had been, there was only flattened grass. But no sign of her.

“Wait. I don’t understand,” quickly said Cassandra, crazed by the sudden disappearance and the lack of rest.

“She went back to the caravan,” guessed Xavier, not seeing much reason to fuss.

“Xavier! She was there, unable to move, her hands like… I don’t know, like burned and clawed and… We would have seen her if she were at the caravan! We have to get after her!”

“Cassandra, I get you want…”

“No! No, you don’t get it, Xavier!”

She ran back the caravan. Without surprise, Rapunzel wasn’t there. She took her Coronan spy clothes, a cloak and her sword, a belt with two daggers and a whetstone from the storing space under her and Rapunzel bed cabin. She was ready to leave. A lot was still missing though. She could hear Xavier walking back to the caravan behind her, but didn’t mind him. She closed the storage, and went to the room at the back of the caravan. It was there provisions were kept.

“We’re going after her,” promised Xavier. “But we barely stopped the caravan in two days. We need to rest. And most of all, the horses need to rest. Cassandra, what you’re doing isn’t wise. We should stick together.”

“Rapunzel is gone!” she shouted, not stopping her frenetic search.

Her eyes were wet. She wiped the tears with her hand, and searched in the little room.

There it was. The wooden box from the Spire, with a blue stone inside of it. Since they left the ferry, Ensis Wiseblade had stayed in his Mindtrap most of the time. He won’t know what happened when he’ll leave his corporeal stone. She put the box in her bag where she just took food and skins of water.

“Don’t try to stop me,” she warned Xavier.

She left the room, and walked away. She could run. She would certainly be able to catch up with Rapunzel. But with the whole bag she had with her, so she would too soon be tired. So she walked fast, without running. Endurance was better than speed.

At the caravan, Xavier sighed, and yawned. He hadn’t felt that tired in many centuries. Something was happening. Something big. He couldn’t tell what it was, but he could feel it. And he dreaded it.

As soon as Cassandra was away, there was no sound left in the dark of the night. Clouds had started to cover the stars and moon above. He knew, could feel in his guts that Cassandra would be able to find her way. But Rapunzel… He hoped so. Xavier knew, somehow, that she wasn’t alone. But he couldn’t tell whether this was a good or a bad omen.

Not long after, Eugene, awakened by the noises, came out of his own bed, and found Xavier looking in the dark. The old man said nothing. Eugene understood right away.

“I’m going after them!” he decided, grabbing his cloak.

“Eugene! You can’t!” stopped him Xavier, a firm hand on his shoulder.

“I can’t? That was Adira? Right? It can only be her! Xavier, we know barely a thing about this warrior woman! The girls could be both in grave danger! Give me just one single good reason for me to stay!”

“Only one? Where do I even start, Eugene!? We’re going into lands we have no map of, the last time I’ve been there was centuries ago, now there could be a raging stream ahead, l need all of us. From what we know, you’re the heir of the Dark Kingdom. You met Adira back in Corona. She knows who you are. And she doesn’t care. I can’t let you risk your life like this! I can’t lose you all! You may know the roads, but this Adira knows these lands better. She’s home. We’re not. We have better chances to find Cassandra and Rapunzel if we stick together.”

“You know what I hate about you Xavier? You’re often right. I’m staying. But if there’s any clue on our path that could help us find them, I’ll go after them.”

Xavier sighed.

“As you wish,” he reluctantly accepted.

“Boys road trip, here we go! And let not waste time. We can try to pull the caravan. Wait no, we wake Varian and let him do his handiwork. It’s not because it failed once that it’ll always fail.”

“Let’s at least wait until dawn.”

“And let them get away? We can’t! Xavier, what’s gotten into you? You’re the one who pulled us into this adventure, why… Why do you sound like you want to stop…?”

“I… I’m dying. The Sundrop I have, it’s faltering… And I can feel that Rapunzel’s Sundrop is somehow blocked by something I don’t recognize. I want to be there, to help you, but I don’t know if I still can.”

“Xavier, why didn’t you say so before? We’re a team. We’ll get to the end of this. Together. That’s why we have to find the girls.”

“I know, I know, I’m just an old man ranting about his old age. But if I can’t lead us to the Dark Kingdom, don’t abandon us, Eugene. As long as the girls aren’t with us, you’re the only one I can ask to bring this caravan to the end of this journey. Varian is too young to do this on his own.”

“I get it. Go get some rest, Xavier.”

The old man smiled to him, a tired smile that showed the wrinkles slowly increasing at the corner of his eyes and on his forehead. They had appeared rather quickly, in only a couple of days. This couldn’t be good.

~ ~ ~

Cassandra was faster than she expected. The path was easy to follow, she only had to listen to the wind bringing to her ears the sound of steps in the otherwise silence of the forest. Not that nocturnal animals were usually silent, she knew that too well from the time she lived at her mother’s cottage. But when humans were around, the fauna wanted all but to be hunted, and kept a religious silence.

Her target was ahead of her. She was close. Almost too easy. Stealthy, walking like a lynx on snow, she made wide and light steps under the low branches.

There was a flicker of light. The stars shone on Adira’s black blade on her back. Cassandra stayed crouched near the ground, nearly invisible. Adira looked behind her, and urged Rapunzel to walk forward. And even in the dim of the night, Cassandra could see her falling arms. It wasn’t only her hands that were blackened by now. It had started to reach her forearms, and was half-way through it. Whatever was causing was eating her energy away.

Behind the thick branches, there was an opening in the rocks, not unlike the rocks hiding the Tower back in Corona. These rocks were more orange, limestone. They were back in a canyon. She resumed her walk, still careful of the noise she was making, and looked ahead. Searching in her bag, she realized the spyglass was at the caravan. Cassandra muttered a curse. She would have to work without it then.

Owl hooted next to her. Oh, he was her eyes in the sky, wasn’t he? She extended her arm, and he flew on her gloved hand.

“Owl, I’m going to need you to trust me. I have no idea if what I’m about to do will work.”

Owl tilted his head, and hooted a single time. _Yes_ , he said quietly. Cassandra put two fingers on his small temple, and brought her head until her skinned forehead touched his feathery forehead, and closed her eyes.

It’s been months since she had last gathered magic from the world around her. She thought she would have forgotten how to do it. But some things aren’t forgettable.

Magic flew between her and Owl. It was faster than she expected. When she opened her eyes, her left showed her what she saw, the right what Owl saw. Same for him. She tore her sleeve, and made him an eye-patch to cover his right eye. Owl hooted. It was the right one to hide. She didn’t hide any of her eyes. She would need to know both where to walk, and where she would be headed.

Owl hooted again, and flew ahead. Behind him, Cassandra blinked several times, massaging her eyes. It would take her time to adjust to this double sight. But right now, it was her best bet to find Rapunzel and Adira.

Her bag steady on her back, she walked again. She was in some large cave in the canyon, leading who knows where. Where, only Adira seemed to know. But no caravan could go through there. It was way too narrow. If it was a shortcut, it was very well hidden.

In her left eye, Cassandra saw the path in front of her, and jumped over holes, ducked under stalactites. In her right eye, she saw the path ahead, dark, and yet, through a night bird’s sight, not so dark. She knew where she was exactly going.

Thunder roared behind her. A thunderstorm was coming. In the canyon. She would have to stop for the storm to pass if she didn’t want to get caught but surging water. Cassandra grumbled. This couldn’t be good. At least, Adira and Rapunzel would have to stop too. Maybe Rapunzel could escape… She hope it wouldn’t be too late. In her right eye, she saw that Owl had stopped as well, and was resting in a hole in the stone, keeping his watchful eye over the valley.

Cassandra closed her eyes. The night had been short. She yawned, and shook her head to keep herself awake. But it was of no use. So she accepted herself weak against tiredness and fell on her side against the rocks. It was cold there, with the wind whistling between hoodoos just outside the cave.

In her childhood with Gothel, touches were most of the time harmful. But when she was with Rapunzel, Cassandra had learned to welcome touches of genuine affection and love. And now, without her in her arms, even her warmth next to her, she felt alone, and cold, like a child abandoned in winter.

A warm blue glow emerged from her bag. Ensis. Cassandra opened his box, and the incorporeal founder of the Brotherhood appeared in his usual dense cloud of deep blue and black tendrils.

His head turned around like an owl’s. He didn’t recognize the area.

“ _Where are we?_ ” he wrote in the dirt with his spectral finger.

“Somewhere… I’m not sure,” said Cassandra. “Rapunzel has been taken. I’m after her.”

“ _Why am I here?_ ”

“I… Don’t know… When I left I took your box, I didn’t even think about it…”

She sighed, tired, and yet, she knew that even with the incoming storm, each minute far from Rapunzel was a minute they were further away from each other. She shivered at the thought. Cassandra would find her. She would. There was no way the Brotherhood would take Rapunzel and use her power like Gothel did for years. Cassandra wouldn’t let them.

“ _How can I help?_ ” asked her Ensis on the ground.

Cassandra didn’t answer right away. How could he help, indeed? Ensis possessed part of the Moonstone, a part the cosmic artifact had given him, recognizing the Great Tree’s magic he had after years training the Brotherhood in the Sacred Tree. But apart from his knowledge, the decaying form the Moonstone’s powers gave him didn’t allow him much impact on this world anymore. He was but a silent watcher in this world of the living.

“You can’t possess anyone, that’s what you said?” checked Cassandra with a low voice, regretting asking as soon as the words were out.

Ensis seemed to hesitate. But with his faceless appearance, it was difficult to tell what he was thinking. Finally, a skeletal fingers closed the distance with the dirt of the ground, and erased his previous sentences to write his new answer.

“ _If I possess anyone,_ ” he wrote, “ _I fear I’ll only disappear. I am already dead. The Moonstone keeps me partly alive._ ”

“If… If you were to possess anyone,” said Cassandra before he could write anything else, “would that person receive the Moonstone’s powers who have?”

“ _That, only the Moonstone can decide._ ”

“Ensis… can you sense the Sundrop in Rapunzel? Can you sense where she is?”

He erased the letters with a blow of wind, and wrote again.

“ _Sundrop and Moonstone are connected. I can see where she is. She is close. Closer that you think._ ”

“If you possessed me, I could find her.”

“ _That is unwise._ ”

“You’re dead! Ensis, you… you know a lot, you’ve lived a lot… If you could pass the Moonstone power from you to me… I could find Rapunzel. Please.”

“ _You’re desperate. I know that. I was desperate to save my kingdom from the Moonstone once. And then the Moonstone saved me from my people._ ”

After writing this, Ensis floated away in the cave, yet close enough for Cassandra to still see him.

“So… What do you say, Ensis?”

The spectral figure came back to where she was, and blew the words away.

“ _I say it’s worth trying. But I’ll be gone. You won’t be able to bring me back if you need me._ ”

“But I’ll find Rapunzel. And we’ll find the Moonstone. And you’ll be at peace. The peace you wanted for the Dark Kingdom since you founded the Brotherhood.”

“ _True… I accept the offer. I hope it won’t be painful for either of us._ ”

“As long I can find Rapunzel, I’m ready to try anything.”

L egs shaking from tiredness, she stood up, and leaned on the limestone wall to anchor her to something, anything.  The run in the forest and the many hours without sleep before that were starting to worsen.

E nsis stood in the air before her. In the dim light of the cave, her left eyes show ed her where  he was . In her right eye, she only  saw black ness . Owl was sleeping, away on the path.

Ensis stood there, and nodded.

“I’m ready,” assured Cassandra.

She wasn’t ready.

Ensis lunged into her, typhooned into her right arm like his sword had phased through Eugene’s head at the Spire. But there, he didn’t emerged on the other side.

The pain it brought was to die for. Cassandra fell at once on the ground.  All that Ensis had received through months of coma, she received in seconds during which all her senses  rang volleys of  tocsins.

It was cold, immensely cold, freezing through her chest, the Moonstone worming its way in her. A searing pain shot through her arms, like claws piercing through her flesh, not drawing blood, and somehow, not seeing a single red drop felt even worse.

It didn’t stop. Cassandra felt her skin burn under the sheer pressure of the few yet powerful magic now flowing in her. How? How could neither Rapunzel nor Ensis feel like dying when they had such magic in them? That, Cassandra couldn’t yet understand.

When at last, after too long minutes, the pain, still pulsing as though it had come in her veins, slowly dissipated, she could feel the skin of her arms crack. In the dark of the cave, her owl eye saw the flesh burnt, black as the smoke that covered Ensis, as the black rocks leading them through unknown lands.

If this was the price to pay to save the one she owned her free life to, then so be it.

Ensis was gone. Too soon. She had so many questions… He had held the Moonstone’s fraction of power for centuries, he knew how to use it as its best.

T oo late. No turning back now. Cassandra welcomed the frozen sensation, and closed her eyes.  He had said  he could sense the Sundrop. So it means she could too.

She heard the water running down the limestone, drops falling in little  eroded basins. The wind whistled in her ears like the song of the wild calling for her. And out there, toward where Owl went, but far away, behind even Owl, there was a yellow trace in the dark. The Sundrop.

Cassandra’s eyes snapped open. In her one-eyed vision, she saw the cave, and followed it to the end. She reached the exit soon. And the canyon was waiting for her, taunting her to jump and fall on the stones below. But not today.

With Ensis’ power in her, she felt lighter.  When she brought her hand in front of her, it was dark. But not dark like Rapunzel’s hand.  D ark like Ensis’  smoke - like  appearance. She still had flesh and bones, but some of her wasn’t all flesh and bones anymore.

H er feet left the ground. She was a bird above the canyon. From up there, she saw a narrow path, even narrower than the cave,  running like a snake down the side of the cliff. It must have been  w here Adira and Rapunzel walked.

As she arrived on the other side, where the Sundrop called for her, she lost altitude. Not much, but enough for fear to run through her. If she  were to fall, at this height, they was only one possible outcome.

In a reflex, she extended her arms above her head, and they  wind milled  in the air, searching frenetically for something, anything to grab and stop her fall.  And as she extended her arm, and her hand, from the dark cloud covering her sprung a solid form, long and swift, that she grab bed and sent with all her energy through the rocks.

It hit the stones, and stopped her fall.

Breathing loudly, Cassandra looked down. She was in no shape to parkour around the canyon. Hopefully, she knew where she had to go. Above her. A ledge.  A wooden ledge. And a path. And in that  dark wooden  path, the Sundrop. Rapunzel. She didn’t know if  Rapunzel could sense her as well. If Rapunzel could, she would know Cassandra was coming.

She heaved her glance and saw what had saved her. A blade, black as night, long and sharp. Two-handed sword with flaming black smoke. Ensis’ claymore. He was gone. But the blade would now be hers to bear and wield in his name. For the Brotherhood. And against the Brotherhood.

~  ~ ~

Far away, others were in the air too. None were falling. Saporians knew war. And they knew physics too. Hot air was lighter than cold air, and the balloon Andrew had was proof of that.

In the basket,  Tromus guided Andrew at the commands. Caine looked down on the land s , lands that she had never seen from up there in the sky. So this was the lands she liked to terrorize and steal from. On another side of the wicker basket, Arianna was looking down too, this kingdom that was hers and Frederic’s. When she saw what she saw, she felt proud of such a kingdom. Still, she couldn’t fe el proud for Caine nor Andrew and what they had done.

“Do you have any idea of where we’re really going?” she heard Andrew ask Tromus.

“The princess is going to the Moonstone. To reach the Moonstone, we have to go to the Great Tree. It is at mid-distance from the Moonstone and where the Sundrop was. Follow this heading for as long as we can.”

“Well well, if one day someone told me I’d be flying with a Separatist, the queen of Corona and her adviser to find the Lost Princess, man, I’d have kill them on the spot for lying,” laughed lady Caine.

“Please don’t kill anyone,” said Arianna very seriously.

“Anything for you, honey.”

“And I told you to stop calling me that. I’m old enough to be your mother.”

“You sure you aren’t?” asked Caine, leaning on the top of the basket.

At the dared question, Arianna shot her a death glare.

“Just kidding! I know you can’t be her… She killed herself after my father was imprisoned. Her, you can bring her back.”

“I… I didn’t know… I’m sorry. Truly.”

“As if you cared,” spat Caine above the wicker railing.

“I do care. But I didn’t know… As the queen, every information I receive has been filtered. It’s paradoxical. I’m supposed to know all about my kingdom. And others think I’m better without knowing. It may never have reached the castle. I’m truly sorry for your loss.”

Caine looked down without saying a word. The queen could say the truth.

“Anyway… How to you feel anyway, with that parasite of sort in you?”

“Tired. But I know that once we find Rapunzel, we’ll settle this once and for all. The parasite… I want to call it Zhan Tiri, but Zhan Tiri is the mage who previously had the parasite… This is so complicated,” she complained, resting her head in her hands. “All I hope is that my daughter is safe and sound wherever she is.”

“I get it… When we’ll find your daughter, and you free my dad, what’s in it for me?”

“We’ll see. This journey is your chance to change, miss Caine. I won’t sue you for the rumors if you help us enough. But, try to not help us only for your own safety. I want you to see you can be better. I can’t do anything for your mother… But once your dad is free, you don’t have to steal and take revenge for him anymore. Thanks to you, for all who were wronged, I’ll be able to make things right when we get back.”

“If we get back,” corrected Caine.

“Yes… If,” admitted Arianna.

~ ~ ~

Information came rather fast to Vardaros. The Baron read all the newspapers with vicious hunger. When he was done, he threw the papers on the table, slapping his fist on the marble with a mischievous greasy laugh.

“Things are moving in Corona! At last! Ah!”

At the door, Sugracha arrived. The Baron’s right hand man, Weasel, invited her to enter, and stayed silent.

“What good news do you have, Baron?” she asked as she trotted to the large table with her walking stick.

“You’ve heard them as I have, Sugarby. Time to tell dear king Frederic what we ought to tell him.”

“I wouldn’t recommend, Baron,” said Sugracha, readjusting her glasses.

The Baron grumbled. At the door, Weasel was shaking. That was never good. The fearful ruby ring was shimmering with the candles lighted on the walls.

“What did you say?” the Baron growled.

“The princess is too far away right now. It would be unwise to tell the king we have her as long as we don’t have her in our grasp.”

“We know where she is. Thanks to you. We’ll have her in no time!”

Sugracha shook her head.

“She’s too far away. Would you have sent anyone after her when I told you to, we would have had a chance. Now, she’s too far.”

“What do you suggest?” grumbled the Baron.

“The queen is loose. The kingdom is weak. Go to Corona. Send men to find the princess. Before your daughter finds her first.”

“Stalyan!!!” shouted a raging Baron, on the verge of throwing the marble table through the room. “I should never have let her go!”

“I concur,” simply said Sugracha.

She lifted her walking stick, and hit the floor once. Twice. The Baron stilled.

“Here’s what you’re going to do. Send your nephews after the princess and your son-in-law. As for the queen I know it’s no use. She’s a bird. Deadly bird. But a bird nonetheless. We could never catch her.”

She hit the floor a third time, and released the Baron.

“Weasel!” he called through the wide room. “Go fetch my nephews!”

“On it, Baron,” obeyed Weasel, leaving the room.

The Baron sat back on his throne-like chair, waiting for them to arrive. His impatience showed itself through his fingers nervously drumming against the armrests. From time to time, he growled again, keeping anyone who would want to speak to do so. Even if there was only Sugracha in the room by now.

An hour later, Weasel came back with the Stabbington brothers. They smelled the filth of the town and bad alcohol. The one with the eye-patch had a wound on the arm. A fight with a stray dog for a bet to win apparently.

“You got something for us, uncle?” asked the one with red sideburns.

“Yes, I do, my dear nephew… Flynn Rider. He let you to the guards, that’s what you told me?”

“That he did! I’ll skin him for what he did to us!”

“In time, in time,” said the Baron. “Miss Sugarby knows where he is. You’re going after Flynn Rider. And there’s another loot with him too…”

“A great one?”

“Did I ever send you to a bad loot?” growled the Baron.

“No, uncle, of course not,” replied the Stabbington, looking down.

“You and your brother are to follow her directions. And bring me back Rider alive. I’ll have a word with him.”

“Alive?” checked his nephew.

“You can have fun. As long as he’s alive when he gets here.”

“We’ll do our best, uncle.”

“Miss Sugarby, lead them to the maps room,” ordered the Baron. “I want them on the road by sundown.”

“Oh course, Baron,” she croaked, leading the Stabbington on her heels to the room next door.

In the room, maps of the known world around Vardaros were everywhere. On walls, tables, rolled on shelves… Through the decades of thievery, the Baron had gathered in his mansion more maps than a king could count.

On the main table, Sugracha unrolled one of those maps, one Stabbington keeping a side from rolling up again. She showed them the way, where to go, what to avoid, the traps, all that she had seen through her bird’s eyes. She had set the whole road for them. The Baron didn’t have a word in this. All they had left to do was take some stuff for the journey.

After hours of explanations, she sent them to the mansion’s stables. They left before night.

Right after his nephews left Vardaros, the Baron ordered two horses to be prepared. He left with Sugracha, and set course toward Corona.

~ ~ ~

Of all prisons, the Lost Realm certainly was the worst. It used magic to stay in place. And magic was what the being kept inside it had. But not for long.

Magic… She had left magic in many places, back when she had been on Earth. Back when she had been powerful. Now, the few she had wasn’t even enough to keep the monsters of the Lost Realm at bay. Or were they really monsters? Or beings like her, trapped for too long?

After the battle with Demanitus, long, oh so long ago, she had left in the mountains a lot of magic. It would serve, one day. But it wouldn’t serve her. For it wasn’t exactly her magic.  Many thought it was her magic. It never was.  It’s been so long since she had thought for herself, and not for another she shared a body with.

They had the same interest in finding powerful magic. One to survive and satiate its  primal  hunger, the other to finally gain respect in a world now dead that  used to  look down on her.

She was weak there, in this fe e ble world. The magic that had helped her  once  was mostly gone.  Did it find enough energy to sustain itself? Or  did it died, like she would die there, in this miserable realm of nightmares in the form of deranged dreams?

That, Zhan Tiri couldn’t know.

She had been a powerful mage, once. And then, the magic of old came to her, and seduced her. They had common goals, they could ally, it had whispered in her ear.  And like a fool, she had listen ed to its sweet words.

Why did she even listen to Demanitus, long ago, when he had convinced her to leave the Sundrop alone so it could be studied? This  leech had taken advantage of being carried around worlds, of finding what it was looking for. It couldn’t sustain on the Sundrop and Moonstone it was after then, so it had  f ed  on Zhan Tiri’s own magic instead.

A nd now it was gone. Part of it had resided on Earth since the fights long ago. Most of it had left  to save itself from the portal had opened months ago. Months? Time was… very relative in the Lost Realm. It could have been minutes or centuries, Zhan Tiri would feel it the same way.

And no matter how long she had been there, this escaped magic would soon reunite with what was still out there. And the leech would find someone else.

Zhan Tiri pitied whoever would hold the leech. It would drive them crazy. See things no one else sees. Take its own demonic appearance, in lieu of theirs. It would look at first like some magical disease, but it was far from that. Only a mage with enough magical knowledge would be able to recognize that.

But if a mage who could recognize that were to find the leech, she hoped they would know what to do. No fire, no cage, nothing could hold the leech. It had to be dealt with with precautions.  And force. A lot of forces.  Forces worthy of cosmic powers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cassandra’s spell with Owl was close to the one Sugracha did few chapters ago. Not exactly the same, as Sugracha used a potion, Cassandra only a spell. I consider that with Cassandra knowing Owl, and having with him a long-time friendship, it was easier for the spell to work, while Sugracha didn’t know her bird at all.
> 
> Next chapter: Into the Great Tree!


	14. A wooden maze with many escapes and entrances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Into the Great Tree!

“What _is_ this place?” asked Eugene.

His jaw was dropping to the ground before the very massive tree in front of him. He swore he had seen ferocious shadows on the way to the entrance, but right now, there was only him, Xavier, Varian and the horses. They had put their belongings in bags the horses could carry, as the caravan would be too big to go inside. And there was no known way around.

“The Great Tree of Zhan Tiri,” explained Xavier. “She used to live there, long ago. It’s up there, on this balcony of sort that Demanitus sent her away in the Lost Realm. He destroyed the portal by provoking a landslide.”

“You were there?” asked Varian, stars in his eyes before the History in front of him and the man who had lived such History.

“I was, yes. At the time, I was helping Gothel get away. She had started a battle with Zhan Tiri. I don’t know what hit her. It was suicidal. When I see where that leads us, I wonder why I even cared about helping her.”

“You did as you always did, Xavier,” said Eugene. “And that’s why we stick with you. You’re a good soul. You didn’t know she would turn out like she did at the time.”

“I didn’t, true. But I could’ve seen it coming. Anyway, the Tree has grown a lot since I’ve been last there. I’ve never seen the other side. We should get inside and find a way.”

“And find the girls.”

“Eugene, if Adira has Rapunzel, she’ll want to go to the Dark Kingdom. They’re certainly in the Tree, if not already outside.”

“Let’s go then. We want to catch them, not stay behind. Varian!” he called to the kid sketching the built entrance for study reasons, “we’re going in!”

The alchemist ran to them, and they crossed the doors as one.

Behind, far behind, shadows moved, sharp and swift. They were followed.

Inside, the Great Tree was hollow, like carved from the inside. Which it was, in many places, as the Brotherhood once trained there and built rooms and ways in and out of the Tree. From time to time on their way, they could see fallen statues of ancient heroes from the Dark Kingdom. Eugene shivered, knowing those stern and proud figures were those of his ancestors, his family for some. If they could see what had become of their lands and descendants, they’d probably be ashamed of such loss of grandeur.

“I think we’re going to have to climb,” said Xavier, looking at the intricated path designed inside the tree, only half man-made.

A path that looked like the only one to take was going up in the tree, up in the branches. From where they were, no path was going down or simply over the wide hole in the middle of the tree.

They walked as one, side by side, not losing anyone else in this maze. Xavier kept the horses’ reins in hands. Eugene, who had taken a defensive sword in hand, not trusting anything in this eerie place, kept an eye on every little thing the wind blew and moved. Varian, his sketchbook in hand, often looked up and down the tree, hoping to get a good visual of the whole thing to help them move faster. Which wasn’t to disagree with Eugene’s gut telling them they should find the exit soon.

They walked for what felt like hours. And always, on their backs, this feeling of been watched, with shadows with animal forms looming all around them. Sometimes they were just leaves the wind played with, sometimes, when one of them threw a rock to be sure, a bird would fly and scare the life out of them. And they would walk again, with the heavy glares of something – or someone – they couldn’t see, but who could see them. Seemed like the Great Tree really owned the name the Dark Kingdom gave it. Cursed Tree.

Light started to fade. Xavier was about to light in his hand a magical flame, under the marveling eyes of Varian, but Eugene preferred to fire torches instead.

“Don’t get tired,” he told the elder, and Xavier nodded.

As they walked up, up, and always upper in the tree, the trio slowly distended. At a time, Eugene, first in line, stopped and watched behind him. Xavier was coming with the horses. Varian was certainly behind them, always sketching what surrounded them.

But when Xavier reached Eugene, and stopped to sit on a stone and take deep breaths, the kid was nowhere to be seen.

“Varian! Where is Varian!?” asked Eugene frenetically, looking around, but seeing nothing but the void in the Cursed Tree.

“He’s not with us?”

Xavier was truly surprised, his mind fuzzy by the climb and his youthful energy slowly leaving him.

“Dammit! No! I’m going for him!”

Eugene was about to leave and run after the kid when Xavier caught him be the sleeve, nearly falling doing so.

“Eugene! No! If we split up, we’re all doomed! We’ll find Varian. But we have to go forward first!”

“We’re doomed if we don’t stick together!”

“He will be fine!”

“How can you be so sure!?” insisted Eugene.

“I can’t! You’d doom us all to be lost in this damned tree for a kid?!”

“Not just any kid. You promised his dad we’d keep him safe, Xavier!”

“But who will keep you safe in there?!”

Xavier couldn’t find anymore word to make him stay. Should they go separate ways, there was no one to tell if they could find each other on the other side of the Great Tree. It was massive, giant, a real maze. They had to go together.

And Varian… It pained Xavier to think of the kid, but by now, he was on his own. They could wait for him, sure. But he could be on a parallel path, already ahead of them, and they wouldn’t know. They could shout in the tree for him to hear them, but if they really were followed, what they could bring onto them could be even worst than losing one of them.

~ ~ ~

Varian was safe. For now. While he was sketching a vine and the carving on the wall behind it, he didn’t see through which path Eugene and Xavier went. So, he went on another path. And until now, he hadn’t found them yet. Still, his map of the Great Tree was more and more detailed.

A shadow flew over him. When he saw it on his book, he thought it was a bird.

It wasn’t.

Something landed behind him. Except… It was someone. The man flicked his wrists and from his forearm’s armors emerged two blades. He made they hiss on the stone of the ground, walking toward Varian with a predatory nonchalance. Behind him arrived two large wolverines, all claws out ready to slice.

Captivated by his work, Varian only noticed the presence when a shadow larger than his appeared on the ground. He spun around, thinking he would face Eugene. It wasn’t Eugene.

“Well well… What did good ol’ Hector find today?” hissed the man standing there.

He looked young, yet, his stance and the way he held his weapons proved he had been around for longer than his appearance let show.

Varian gulped at the sight of the armed man, he whose only weapon were his pen and his brain. He ran away.

“Oh no, don’t leave so soon.”

He clicked his fingers and sent the wolverines after the kid. They caught up with him in two jumps. Varian was trapped. He turned to see his attacker.

Both gauged the other, walking in circle, keeping the distance, never too close to start the fight, never to fight to fly away.  At one circle, Varian snatched from the ground a branch and held it, better shield than sword.  His opponent only laughed at that pitiful attempt to win. But Varian wasn’t trying to win anything else than his life right now.

“No one trespasses the Cursed Tree!” shouted the armed man, Hector.

Varian looked around for something, anything that could help him. Until his glance found on Hector’s hand the tattooed Brotherhood sigil.

“You’re from the Brotherhood? My father is too! Quirin! You know him, right?!”

Hector stopped for a moment, yet still firmly held his weapons toward Varian.

“Quirin? You’re Quirin’s son? It’s been a long time… Wait. No. I never met you.”

Hector lunged forward, both blades ready to impale Varian. But the swift alchemist rolled on his side, and evaded the blow. He tried to throw one of his trick balls, but missed his shot. Which only made Hector madder when he saw one of his two wolverines stuck in the pink goo. He went again for Varian, who escaped the blade, but started to bleed. His arm was hurt.

“Nowhere to run now, kiddo,” said Hector in a sing-song voice.

“Wait! Prince Horace! I know… I know where he is!”

Hector waited a second, allowing Varian to catch his breath to explain himself.

There were two wolves in the Great Tree that day. A pretentious young wolf trying to reason a battle-worn lone wolf.

“Prince Horace you say? Well played,” finally laughed the old wolf.

“I know who he is! I can… I can take you to him! He’s the heir of the Dark Kingdom? He’s the prince of your kingdom?”

“Yes, that’s right… But it won’t work…”

“It will! Listen, I came with prince Horace, if I lead you to him, will you leave me and my friends alone? You’ll have to!”

“It can’t be prince Horace!” shouted Hector, throwing his sword above Varian’s head, only to be stuck in a tree.

It was definitely stuck. He tried to get it out, but nothing could free it. Varian seized the opportunity to quickly get away.

“Prince Horace is dead!” shouted Hector to get the kid to stay.

“No, he’s not!” retorted Varian, running away for the sake of his life.

He threw his defensive branch away, too heavy to run with.

Hector managed to break his blade. He was free. And the shards of his blade remaining on his wrist were only sharper that the blade itself. Deadlier.

He set chase on Varian. The kid had the advantage of being faster, but Hector knew every little mouse path in the Great Tree. He found him in no time. And between a wall and Hector stood Varian.

“The Dark King ordered his people to leave,” he said, circling Varian against the wall. “We left. All of us. He told one of the Brothers to care for his kid. The sickly prince Horace. The Brother left. To never return to the Dark Kingdom to this day. The prince was never heard of ever again. There is no prince Horace.”

He was hissing saying those words, like poisoned reminder of the fall of the Dark Kingdom.

“But… That doesn’t mean the prince is dead. He’s here! Just… Just let me guide you to him! Please! Don’t kill me!”

“ _I_ was the one in charge of the royal runt!” he shouted, by anger and shame all at once. “He never lived past the third winter!”

“But… the king! The king, if he recognizes the prince, he’ll be prince!”

“King Edmund! Ah! Make me laugh! Must be rotting in his rock castle, that’s the only thing he does!”

“Please!” pleaded Varian in a shout.

“Hector!” shouted someone else from away in the tree.

He stopped his blow in mid-air. Adira. She was there. Somewhere. In the tree. And judging by the voice, she was enough far away to not fear bringing Hector to her and battle. The warrior growled and the blow of his blade went in the stone.

“You’re only bait!” he spat to Varian, before running away toward the voice.

His wolverines on his heels, he disappeared in the dark of the Cursed Tree.

~ ~ ~

Way above Hector, on a wooden balcony above the empty space in the Great Tree, Adira and Rapunzel had stopped. When the thunderstorm had unleashed its rage outside, they were already inside the tree.

Rapunzel was laying on the ground against a wall of vines. Whatever magic she couldn’t understand was causing her hands and arms to change, it had calmed in the tree. Her skin was back to its normal tone. She felt less tired there. The Great Tree was both Sundrop and Moonstone, at mid-distance from each celestial ancient power. And now, one of them was there. Home.

Wherever was Cassandra, Rapunzel hoped she was okay. She felt bad for her, leaving her at night like this, even if the fault was more Adira’s.

But now, she felt better. The Great Tree’s magic held at bay whatever had provoked the seizure the day before. Rapunzel stood up to walk around, see the Tree she had so much heard about. Adira was standing on the ledge, looking down. Behind them both, their was a corridor, of limestone and wood, hidden by vines. So, that was from there she had come inside the tree. A light breeze came, cold and yet, welcomed.

“What do we do, now?” asked Rapunzel to Adira.

“You feel better? We should go the Dark Kingdom at once. This place isn’t safe. It’s the only way to enter the Dark Kingdom, but it’s also Hector’s lair. He doesn’t believe in the Sundrop. No one can cross this path if he’s here.”

“I feel bad for my friends. We should leave them something, a message, telling them I’m okay.”

“And tell Hector where you’re going? Not going to happen. Look, he’s down there,” said Adira, pointing with her black rock sword another stone and wood balcony, where there were two persons.

One of them was Hector, with his broken blade and his wolverines. The other, Rapunzel gasped loudly when she recognized him. Varian.

“We have to do something!” she urged Adira. “He’s going to kill him!”

“He’s in the Great Tree. The Great Tree is Hector’s domain.”

“Adira! He’s a kid! You can’t just watch him die! Being a lone warrior shouldn’t stop you from helping an innocent!”

“He’s from the Brotherhood. His father is. He will be. He needs to harden his spirit.”

“By nearly dying? Do something!”

“Really? Or what?”

Rapunzel unbraided her hair and let it fall in the void of the tree. It was heavy, and the light wind in the tree made if even heavier. She was strong enough to not fall. Or to let herself follow her hair down the tree.

“Or I fall.”

Adira took a step back. The Sundrop would take her life to save this kid. Unless the knight did something. She turned to the ledge and watched down there. Hector was about to deliver a deadly blow to Varian, cornered against a wall.

“Hector!” shouted Adira.

That was it. He saw her. And in the emptiness of the tree, his feral growl echoed everywhere. He was coming.

“Come on! We have to go!”

Adira urged Rapunzel to follow her in the corridors. Her hair heavy behind them was keeping her from running fast. But if one can’t run, one can fly. Rapunzel took a handful of her hair and threw it above them on a branch. She heaved herself high above the ground and stopped, looking around, scanning for any friendly figure to emerge in this maze. Adira hadn’t stopped running. She was far now. If even her didn’t want to face Hector, what chances would any of the others have?

Rapunzel saw a door, near the roof where her branch was. She swung around the axis of her hair to reach the ledge. It was far, but she had experience from the framework in the Tower. The worst part was when she let her hair go and used the momentum to jump on the ledge. She made it. But it was a close call.

She crossed the door. It was a wide circle room, where time had created a pond in the middle. She called for Adira. No answer. She called for her team, for Cassandra. For anyone. No answer. At least, there, she was far from Hector. Or should be. Unless there was another entrance. There was one. The sight of the large door leading to a dark corridor sent a shiver in her spine.

On the stone walls, there were shelves carved, with ancient scrolls in them. And above the shelves, a horned figure. It was odd. The more Rapunzel looked at it, the more she felt drawn to it, like a picture of herself, except it wasn’t. At all. She knew who the ferocious was. She had seen the statue at the Spire. Zhan Tiri. That wretched sorceress.

From what Xavier had told them about Gothel, and what Gothel seldom ranted about, it was to get revenge over Zhan Tiri she coveted the Sundrop and Moonstone. And now, Gothel was gone. Zhan Tiri trapped away. And now, Cassandra and Rapunzel were after the Moonstone to do who knows what. Truly, they didn’t know yet. Her mother had been certain it would help them adjust to this life outside of their prisons. But now, could Rapunzel say she had been right? She couldn’t even tell. There was so many things that could happen when they find the Moonstone.

She walked to the shelves and took a scroll. As she read, she understood what it was. The Sundrop incantation… Flower gleam and glow… It was written harshly, and yet, with letters that held a presence unseen for centuries. There was another spell, another incantation.

Wither. And. Decay.

As her eyes read the words, she felt a tingle in her hands. The same tingle she had felt before leaving the caravan and finding her hands like those of a monster. She threw the scroll away, backing against the wall. Whoever had written this incantation didn’t felt its power the way she did.

A sound came from the main door of the room. Rapunzel hid behind a large vine, getting her hair together near her. She pleaded in silence, hoping it wouldn’t be Hector.

It wasn’t. Nor was it any of his wolverines.

It was a shadow. Thick and cloudy. Dark, with a long two-handed blade.

“Ensis!” cried Rapunzel, leaving her hidden place to go to the Brotherhood’s founder.

But he didn’t react. No. It wasn’t Ensis. Not anymore. The clouds retracted slowly.

“Cassandra?”

She could barely recognize her. But it was Cassandra, under the cloud that was Ensis’ to bear.

“I found you,” she said, lifting a hand to Rapunzel’s face. “I did it, Raps, I found you.”

“Cass…”

They didn’t need words. The claymore fell on the ground, and they fell in each other’s embrace. Tears of joy fell as well on their shoulders.

“How do you feel?” asked Cassandra.

“Better. I think the Tree’s magic is helping me fight whatever… this was,” she said, gesturing her hand.

“I’m glad you’re okay.”

“But… Cass… What have you done? Where is Ensis?”

“I… Raps, we made a deal. Ensis couldn’t do anything else for us. He was alone, merely dead. He agreed to give me the Moonstone’s power he had. But… He’s gone.”

“Why… couldn’t there be another option?”

“I… We didn’t had time to think, Raps, I had to find you, and he knew he would be gone once we find the Moonstone…”

“I trust you did the right thing,” whispered Rapunzel.

Her ear above the beating of her beloved’s heart, she could feel it pulsing. She was still very alive and well. But something about Ensis’ sacrifice didn’t feel right to her.

“Was he happy? In the end?” she asked, her voice low.

“Yes. Yes he was. Now we can find the Moonstone, and bring him peace. He doesn’t have to be the prisoner of this Mindtrap anymore. We’ll free him. Like we freed ourselves from my mother.”

Cassandra released a bit the embrace to watch Rapunzel. She could only see part of her, as her right eye was still connected to Owl’s eye. The bird of prey was near, she could see herself in his vision. It was odd, to say the least.

He hooted and landed on his shoulder as always.

“Cass… Why does Owl have an eye-patch?”

“Err… Long story short, I needed to follow you,” said Cassandra.

She invited Owl to land on her closed fist. And like before, they both closed their eyes and the gap between them, and their forehead touched, skin against feathers. She muttered a few words, and when they opened their eyes against, they had their whole vision restored. Owl shook his head and the eye-patch fell on the ground. He hooted a joyful hoot and flew in the room, circling them both from above. Their sweet laugh at the happy owl sight soothed them.

As Cassandra took some time to observe the room she had arrived in, her glance landed on the scroll thrown near the pond.

“What is this?” she asked Rapunzel, walking toward the scroll to read it.

“I’m not sure… It has the Sundrop incantation on it, but there’s something else and I didn’t feel well reading it.”

“What does it say…” muttered Cassandra, reading in her head under the stressed glare of Rapunzel. “Oh, I see… this, this is an incantation linked to the Moonstone.”

“You didn’t feel anything?” checked Rapunzel, lifting a surprised eyebrow.

“Not really. Was I supposed to?”

“When I read, it was like the thing in my hand was coming back…”

“Wait! I get it! Raps, you have the Sundrop so reading the Moonstone incantation hurt you. With Ensis’ Moonstone power in me, I felt nothing. Just like you do when you read the Sundrop incantation.”

“Could be that,” agreed Rapunzel. “But I’d feel better if we let this here…”

“Raps… this incantation says “ _Set the spirit free_ ”… It doesn’t say what spirit.”

“It’s an incantation, why do you want it to make sense, Cass? Can we just… Move on? …Please?”

Cassandra stayed thoughtful. Slowly, the dark clouds thickened around her, like it did with Ensis. With the difference that she was well alive, flesh and blood, while he had been on the break of death, only incorporeal. Only his spirit had subsisted.

“I just have something to try first,” finally said Cassandra.

She took few steps to stand before the pond. Scroll in hands, she held it before her eyes. She looked around, and her glance stopped on Rapunzel.

“You might want to step back for this one,” she advised, and Rapunzel went in the corridor she had come from.

Cassandra took a deep breath, and reread silently the scroll. Then, she spoke the lines, clear and loud.

“Wither and decay-”

The whole room darkened, as though a storm cloud had passed before the sun. Just outside the room, Rapunzel watched all. And the brightness of her hair seemed to fade at each word.

“-End this destiny-”

The husk of cloud surrounding Cassandra thickened, more that it ever did before. To calm herself, Rapunzel started to mutter the Sundrop incantation. What she was hearing was somehow frightening.

“-Break these earthly chains-”

The husk started to dissociate itself from Cassandra, going through her burnt arms to the scroll. In the night of the room, it was a cloud of black light, floating in a deep dark blue, while, meters away, Rapunzel’s hair was glowing with its soothing yellow gleam with the faintest of muttering.

“- And set the spirit free.”

That was it. The cloud took flight, and was completely away from Cassandra now. Rapunzel stopped mumbling at the sight. It was surreal.

The cloud looked like Ensis had always did. Thick, dark, with shreds of deep purple and blue fabric floating in the air, like long down falling from a ghost bird. The cloud condensed, taking Ensis’ form. It wasn’t him anymore. Only… only a husk, a silent remaining of the mute warrior of old.

For his last act in this world of the livings, he bent to reach his claymore, sole object still tangible, and in his two hands, presented the blade to Cassandra. Even if she was now free from Ensis’ presence, she still bore his part of the Moonstone. From now on, the claymore of the Brotherhood’s founder was rightfully hers to wield.

He said nothing. Cassandra approached her hands, hesitating. Even if she didn’t have much time to accept the power, to accept the loss of their ally, she wasn’t ready to say goodbye. Because once she would have accepted the blade, Ensis would be gone.

“Thank you,” she said in a whisper. “You are free now.”

She wasn’t worthy of the blade. She couldn’t be. She barely knew how to bear a sword properly. He was a warrior, a knight before all.

Cassandra bowed and knelt before his cloud. In the corner of her eyes, she could see above her the blade move. Ensis laid the flat of the blade on her left shoulder, then her right. All she saw next was the claymore vertical, thrust into the ground, for her to take. She lifted her head, and saw the faceless expression of Ensis. Somehow, she could tell he was smiling.

She rested her hands in either side of the hilt and rose up, smiling as well.

“You are free, Ensis,” she repeated.

He nodded. Yes, he was free, the Moonstone wasn’t in him anymore, it had passed to Cassandra. A wind blow came in the room, and the cloud went away. His spirit remaining in their corpse-less form was free. All he had still linking him to the Earth, all was broken now. He was gone. And free. He was finally at peace.

The darkness of the room left as well as Rapunzel entered.

“Did he just…”

“Knighted me?”

None had the words.

“Seemed so,” said Cassandra, her glance lost nowhere and everywhere at once, stuck by the accolade.

“That was… Whoa… solemn?”

“Yeah…”

“What… do we do now?”

“I don’t know, Raps.”

“Cass, your hand,” said Rapunzel, pointing her right hand.

It was dark, like the cloud of Ensis, but charred, like burned too.

“I… It happened when Ensis gave me his power… Well, it’s the Moonstone we’re talking about. You got life, I ain’t got that,” darkly chuckled Cassandra with a shrug.

“Cass, this isn’t funny.”

“It’s ironic. Proves even more my mother didn’t care about me. She knew the Sundrop was life, the Moonstone its opposite. She told me I had to prepare for the Moonstone… She had me so she could kill me, that’s what she did.”

“Cass, please, you’re just angry.”

“Angry? Of Gothel? She’s not there anymore, Raps, we have to move on. Your mother did good, that’s the only thing I’ll say. Do you know where are the others?” she asked to cut off the conversation.

“I… They’re somewhere below. There was Varian and this Hector, and then Adira left. I hope she’s helping our friends…”

“We should try to leave this place… Gives me the creeps…”

“Let’s see what the other scrolls are about first, shall we? If Ensis wrote most of them, we should get to know what he can’t tell us anymore himself.”

Cassandra turned to look at the sculpted shelves on the stone wall and sighed. Somehow, she felt guilty. It was because of her need to find Rapunzel soon that she had made a deal with Ensis, that he was gone forever.

“You’re right. We should see what we got here. And… Raps? I just realized something.”

“What?”

“When I recited the Moonstone incantation, you recited the Sundrop’s, right?”

“I didn’t trust your incantation,” said Rapunzel with a sorry smile.

“And your hair glowed.”

“Yes.”

“It. Glowed.” repeated Cassandra.

“Yes…? Oh…! It glowed! It glowed again! The Sundrop is still there!”

“That’s one heck of a relief, Raps,” laughed Cassandra.

Rapunzel looked at her with a loving smile and took her hands in hers. Her thumb started to draw circles on the charred skin.

“I’m glad we’re okay, Cass. I… If my hair glowed… I can heal you!”

Cassandra took her hands back in the instant.

“I’d prefer not, Raps,” she said, hugging her arms against her.

The dark cloud of smoke started to reappear around her, and she took a step back.

“Cass? I can heal your hand, please…”

“No Raps, no, I… Don’t do that.”

“But why? You’re hurt!”

“I’m fine! You because your hair glowed doesn’t mean you can heal again!”

“Cass… Don’t make me do this against you.”

“Don’t heal me Raps! I don’t want to be like my mother! I’m not her! Don’t. Heal. Me.”

“I know you’re not her,” replied Rapunzel, taking a step toward Cassandra. “I want to heal you, Cass. I love you and I want to care for you. You’re not like your mother. You never were.”

“Please, don’t heal me. I made the choice to accept this power, it gave me this scar, you can’t just take it back like nothing happened!”

“You made that choice to find me. You’ve found me now. You don’t have to bear the scar anymore.”

“Raps. No.”

As Cassandra took another step backward, and Rapunzel mirrored her forward, she saw the blond hair of her loved one glow again. And the wooden walls of the tree glowed an eerie green in response. She looked at her cloudy hand and the claymore reappeared in her fist, blue lightning pulsing in it, on the beat of the pulsing of the hair and the tree.

“Raps! It’s the Great Tree! That’s the only reason your hair glows!” she realized.

“Another reason to heal you now and not later, Cass… I don’t want to see you hurt!”

“Raps, I’m not hurt! It’s no use, stop insisting!” shouted Cassandra, thrusting her claymore in the ground.

The move threw clouds along the blade, and when they touched the ground, they formed piercing black rocks.

“What the?”

Cassandra took the blade back. The black rocks stayed.

“So that’s new…” said Rapunzel.

“Don’t change the subject. I’m not getting healed for my hand, Raps. Not now. We have to go.”

“Go? Where? The Dark Kingdom?”

“Well, yeah, and I think we’d rather go together and tell the others we’re fine than to have Adira steal you again. Unless you’d rather go with her.”

“What? No, I’m never going anywhere with her again!”

“So let’s find a way out and let’s go!”

Cassandra took Rapunzel’s hand in hers, and started to run. They didn’t know the maze of the Great Tree. But they would find an exit.

~ ~ ~

Down there on another path, one of the many main ones, Varian was running for his life. As soon as Hector was running away after being called by a mysterious voice above in the Great Tree, the kid was going as far as possible from the warrior and his wolverines. He tripped on roots and thought he was done for, but each time he watched behind him, there was no one.

After whole minutes running and running without any breath in his throat, the sound of the thrust of a broken blade shook the silence of the Great Tree. And the growls of two warriors battling resonated.

Varian ran, further and further away. As long as the sounds of fights faltered behind him, he felt safer. But as he ran, he didn’t see where he was going, with his blurry wet eyes, and his glance stuck to the ground, afraid that if he looked up, he might see Hector waiting for him at a corner.

He was stopped. It wasn’t a wall, nor a vine, nor a tree. Someone stopped him.

“Don’t hurt me!” yelled Varian in utter panic.

He gesticulated, putting his arms before his face, trying to get away. But strong hands caught his forearms.

“Varian! Kid! You’re okay, it’s just me!” tried to calm him Eugene.

He was holding the kid a little above the ground, so he couldn’t run away. And only when he opened his eyes and saw Eugene, Varian calmed down. His breath was fast, faster than it should be.

“You’re okay, you’re safe, kid,” said Eugene, putting him back on the ground, releasing his arms.

He didn’t see the hug coming. The kid had ran for his life, and was now safe. But the metallic sounds of battle still came from behind them. There was no time to lose. Eugene hoisted Varian to sit him on one of the horses’ back, taking a bag with him to not overcharge the mount.

He then went to Xavier, slumbering against the nearest wall. The old man was difficult to wake up. But he finally stirred out of his sleep, and stood up. He mounted the horse behind Varian, too weakened by the Sundrop slowly leaving him to walk for long. They started the march again, going as fast as they could to get away from the battle first, to get closer to the exit afterward.

About an hour later, a wolverine jumped in front of them. It growled, but didn’t stay. It was followed. Before them appeared Adira and Hector, one crossing their blade with the other’s. When she saw the trio, Adira stopped for a second. Enough for Hector to knock her off-balance.

“Go!” she shouted to them.

They didn’t wait a second warning. Varian snapped the reins of his and Xavier’s horse, while Eugene pulled those of Fidella, running by her side.

But Hector didn’t let them time to run. With his blade, the one still full and unharmed, he sliced down a rock column, and it fell on the path. A trap.

“So, this is the prophetic prince Horace?” he said, walking to the trio.

“Don’t make another step, Hector,” warned Adira.

“Funny thing, I was certain the runt had died in my arms in winter.”

He threw his blade to Eugene, who evaded it more by luck than by dodging willingly. But moving swiftly, his pendant appeared from his neck, dangling from his collar, and Hector’s eyes lighted up. It couldn’t be possible. The rogue knight send his blades forth, slashing air, vines, wood and stones, chasing away the impossible, the impostor, the usurper.

Black rocks fell from the roof. Hector agilely bent past them. There was something big above them. A faint light appeared, yellow glow in the dark green of the tree. He growled and ran to the origin of this eerie light.

No one could go through the Great Tree and leave alive. Not on his watch.

What he couldn’t know what that, as he had slashed another wall, a large part of the bark of the Tree fell above, and two persons left the Great Tree, one husked with deep dark blue clouds, the other with a mane of hair like a river of gold.

The wall falling took other parts of the old Tree with them. An opening appeared behind Eugene. It didn’t get them above the cliffs on the other side of the Tree, only in large caverns. But if it was an exit, they would take it and think later.

When they were far enough, and out of the Tree and the caverns, on a path falling in the valley, dug in the cliff by water and centuries, they could see above. Rapunzel and Cassandra were safe. They were ahead. Their paths parted, but they would all find each other in the end. It couldn’t be otherwise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Let's get back to Corona, as unexpected visitors arrive...

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear what you think of the story 🤗
> 
> As English isn't my first language, feel free to correct me if you see any mistake. After all, I’m writing both because I love to write and invent stories so much, and also because I want to progress in English 😉


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